


A few of my favourite things

by Psiidmon



Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-06-28 12:26:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 38,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19812289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psiidmon/pseuds/Psiidmon
Summary: Ranma is far more comfortable with their curse in this world. Very queer, quite a few instances of polyamory, a good time filled with fluff and running alongside canon.Comments appreciated! Updates monday, wednesday, friday!





	1. Here's Ranma?

The second year of high school had been an interesting one for Nabiki Tendo, even a scant month in. Easy enough to stay atop homework at least, the young girl was able to pass the void in most evenings between the afternoon and dinner by diving into manga.

She had been enraptured by the tale of Persia, the Magic Fairy when she was roused from the dream world by her father calling for a family meeting. Nabiki kicked her feet in acknowledgement as she rummaged through the mess beside her bed to find a ribbon, bookmarking her place then heading towards the dinner table.

Her elder sister had been reading her own book when interrupted, as a light grilling for info on the meeting confirmed. Kasumi did mention hearing "at last, he is coming" after Father got the mail, so the sisters ruminated on what could be befalling them soon. The sounds of their younger sister grumbling about boys as she set up concrete bricks in the dojo made Nabiki pause for a moment. "You don't think Daddy's gone and tried to get Akane a date again?"

Kasumi frowned at that and then sighed. "Probably. Go get her, would you? I'll put some tea together." Nabiki gave her sister a squeeze of thanks to her shoulder, then went out to tease Akane and round her up to the table.

Akane was picking up crumbling hunks of masonry from her stress relief of the afternoon when her sister taunted her about being unattractive for working out. The younger girl scoffed and hissed out a "I wish!" under her breath as she crushed the rubble in her hand, dusting it off into the pile (to be recycled later) before heading to the kitchen to wipe her hands clean.

After the shocking news of an arranged marriage, which atop that was to a boy her dad had never met, Akane was fuming and glowering at the patriarch. Kasumi also looked unimpressed, while Nabiki was busy hoping she would at least get to know someone cute.

  


That's when a barefoot redhead was chased past the dinner table by a giant panda.

  


Everyone at the family meeting took a moment to adjust to that bizarre sight before the panda sensed their eyes and spun around, proffering the young girl in front of it as a shield.

"You wouldn't happen to know..?" Soun began, before the girl nervously looked up from where her hands were fussing with her short qipao and gave a wan smile.

"I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this."

  


* * *

  


"... I thought Ranma was a boy, Daddy?" Nabiki prompted after Kasumi had taken the shoes the panda was wearing back to the entryway and shut the front door.

"So did I." Soun replied, as Ranma looked back down at her wet feet.

"Sorry we barged in, the rain was getting heavier and we didn't want to stink the place up too bad." The girl said as an apology, bowing and rubbing at the back of her head. Nabiki's nose wrinkled in acknowledgement at the giant panda still standing there dressed in a snug gi.

Akane glanced over the apparently tame panda then said to Ranma, "Well, if you and your pet travelled alongside your father, do you know martial arts?"

Ranma's smile lit the room and she excitedly wandered off to the dojo while discussing the benefits of sports bras and bicycle shorts. Nabiki and Kasumi glanced at the panda before heading out to watch the match, both preferring to be away from the smell of wet fur, the teapot left unpoured on the table.

Akane had tagged Ranma on the foot after the girl jumped over her initial probing kick, but after that the redheaded teenager dodged every one of the Tendo's attacks, often leaping completely over her head with little apparent effort. Nabiki looked on in wonder at how graceful the girl moved, sidestepping a heavy punch when Akane became frustrated.

Kasumi tsked at her sister once she hit and fractured the dojo wall, even as Ranma lightly tapped Akane on the shoulder. The young girls smiled awkwardly at each other and Ranma thanked her for the match.

Nabiki held up a finger on each hand and called it a draw, then pointed both finger guns at Akane and said, "Well? Go get the spare plywood, wrecking ball." Akane glanced at where her hand was still stuck in, before sheepishly brushing off remnants of splinters and giving a nod to her sister.

Ranma was kind enough to help her put the patch job on the dojo wall, having been informed by her father about the engagement and believing that she would be staying with the Tendos for a while, so knowing how to help with repairs was the least she could do. The tools made their way back to their hidey hole and the damaged planks joined the broken masonry outside, the redhead stepping lightly on rocks across the koi pond to save the sisters getting wet.

Once the quartet were done setting the dojo to rights, Kasumi went to go heat up the bath, Ranma becoming antsy when she realised what the plan was. Nabiki found herself noting that the boisterous girl was slowing her feet, and stepped back and looped a hand through her elbow. “Come on, Ranma, you can wash my back, okay?”

The girl stiffened in her grasp and tried to back away, causing the middle sister to look at her in new eyes. “Haven’t you had a bath with anyone else before?”

She started to shake her head, before pausing and nodding. “My pops. We’ve been on the road together so long it’s hard not to.”

“It’s okay to wait until afterwards.” Nabiki said with a smile, as Kasumi walked back.

“Nonsense, it would be wasteful not to share the bath.” Kasumi said matter-of-factly. “Besides, we’re all girls.”

Ranma took a deep breath as they entered the changing room, then turned to face the wall and asked Nabiki to get her a small glass of hot water.

  


* * *

  


Soun was doing his best to keep the shock from his face as the trained panda on the other side of the table pulled a chinese guidebook from its oft-washed gi, dropping it in front of the head of the household before of all things setting up the tea set for its owner - where on earth was Genma anyway? - and miraculously it seemed to have been taught what Soun's favourite blend was as well!

After pouring both cups, the beast made a growled impression of happiness, before turning and pouring the remnants of the kettle's load on its lap.

Soun found himself face to face with a friend who suffered through the worst hardships of both their lives, the muscular, portly man tightening his gi and taking a calm drink of tea.


	2. Sleep well, sisters

****

"Thank you for showing us, Ranma, perhaps you can wait with your panda-father until your family can use the bath?" Kasumi said, her mind whirling through the implications of what the curse meant.

Ranma bowed and the redhead padded off in the direction of the dinner table, leaving Kasumi to put the occupied placard up and push her sisters into the bathroom.

Akane was fuming as she slipped into the water. "Why wasn't he upfront about it? And what's with the dress?"

Nabiki had her chin level with the hot water as she thought to herself, while Kasumi began to play with the younger sister's hair.

"It was kind of her to show us the curse without looking at us undressing, don't you think Akane? And if we were meant to be meeting to discuss our engagement, a nice dress like she was wearing is more than appropriate."

Akane gesticulated wildly trying to explain the problems with boys, perverts, and how disgusted she would be if she had the mirrored curse. Kasumi frowned slightly and glanced at Nabiki, the only confirmation she had about Akane's morning ritual.

Nabiki shrugged at started to clean herself as she sat up. "They weren't crowing in victory over getting a hit in on you, and they did try to help with the repairs. Can you imagine any of the usual suspects acting like that?"

Akane reluctantly agreed, laying back and letting her long blue locks spread out in the water.

Kasumi sighed and clucked her tongue as she finished bathing. "Don't wait too long, I'll be sending the Saotomes to have their own bath soon. It can't be fun to be stuck as an animal."

After Kasumi had dressed herself in a nicer dress and returned her towel to the changing room, she softly walked to the dining room and kicked a bucket with a mop in it so it bounced against her father's sitting back.

Soun cut the waterworks and stood, getting to work cleaning up the remnants of his latest crying fit, while Kasumi turned to the transformed pair. "Mr Saotome, if you could please change before your bath? Ranma, I'm sorry you have been changed again."

The youth gave a shrug as she stood. "Was likely to happen again soon anyway, you guys are probably gonna start seeing a lot more rainstorms than normal with us sticking around."

The panda wandered into the kitchen as Kasumi led Ranma back towards the bathroom. "So did either of our fathers discuss education?"

Ranma's head bounced in a nod. "Yeah, whenever pops can put down roots for a while we'll get me enrolled locally. Last time was at an all boys school."

Kasumi looked the young girl over. "That would hardly be appropriate now…" Thoughts of her own began to galvanise as the pair passed Akane in the hallway, before Kasumi turned to the portly older man following his daughter. "Allow me to show you where things are stored."

  


* * *

  


Akane was finding herself quite muddled after the bath, chewing on the watermelon slices left for snacks as she tried to put her thoughts in order.

Nabiki brought up the 300 pound panda in the room before she could, however. "So Daddy, how is this going to affect your plans?"

Akane eyed her dad as she nibbled, the room now cleaned of water damage as he slid the mop back into place. "I don't know that it will all that much, if the curse can be reversed with hot water."

Kasumi was heading in the direction of the furo while softly giggling to herself, Akane's hand crushing the watermelon rind as she wondered what the pair of jerks in her house were planning with her older sister.

Soun's voice faded into the youngest Tendo's brain when he mentioned the engagement. "Wait, what? You aren't going to cancel it?"

Soun stared blankly at his daughter. "We need to secure the legacy of the dojo, dear."

Akane flapped her hands in exasperation, goop from the crushed watermelon splashing on the countertop. "Dad! Magic is real! How can an engagement matter now? I'm not ready, I'll have to figure out how to re-centre myself!"

The other occupants of the house entered the dining room as Akane made her proclamation, the young girl keeping a wary eye on the two men. The younger one was still wearing the short dress from before, this form and the bike shorts making for the look of a short tunic.

Nabiki seemed to be cataloging the appearance of the Saotomes' uncursed forms as they sat back down, Kasumi preparing a light dinner in the background as Akane belatedly wiped down the table.

"So, son, now that you've had time to meet my daughters." Soun said as Kasumi entered with the food for the evening. "Kasumi, my eldest, nineteen." She glanced warily at her father.

Nabiki's eyes were still on Ranma's legs as she was reintroduced "My middle daughter, Nabiki, seventeen."

Akane glared at the boy in the dress as her age - sixteen - was given.

"Pick any you want, they'll be your fiancée!"

Kasumi waved her hand in front of her face quickly. "Oh no Father, I couldn't interrupt a young woman's studies."

Akane was also quick to deflect. "I told you Dad, magic is real! I have to start figuring out counters! I'm not ready for marriage!"

Soun's hand on Nabiki's shoulder made her jump. "Oh, my daughter, I'm so proud of you taking up the family duty!"

"Wait, what? He's cute and all but we hardly know each other!" Akane watched bemusedly as the two teenagers rattled off denials and instinctively recoiled from each other, grinning at her sister's misfortune as Genma and Soun declared them a perfect couple.

  


* * *

  


The younger Saotome grumbled to herself as she made her way through the Tendo residence, sitting down on her overfull backpack in the entry hall and sighing to themself. The black-haired teen stared blankly at the wall as they heard the soft footsteps of someone approaching.

“I’m not going anywhere pops.” She said, trying to ward off any attempts to drag them into a second fight tonight.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Came the soft voice of her fiancé. The older of the two leant against the wall in Ranma’s peripheral vision, wincing slightly. “I’m sorry.” Nabiki said after a pause.

“Huh? What for?”

“Denying the engagement looked like it hurt you.”

The martial artist analysed herself and shrugged, figuring that was close enough to the unfamiliar ache in their self. “It was a bit much to shove down our throats.”

Nabiki gave a small wry smile in the edge of their vision. “I’ll say. So, how about you let me take your bag to your room?”

Ranma glanced at her improvised seat before standing up smoothly, a small cocky grin on their face. “What if you can’t manage it?”

Nabiki poked her tongue out. “Then we’ll get your pet father to do it.” That’s when she tried lifting the pack by the straps holding down the bedroll. And then dragging it along the floor. And then glancing at the grinning Ranma, she rolled her eyes and called for the older Saotome.

Nabiki led the two guests to their room, before giving a short bow to Genma. She then took Ranma’s shoulder and steered them into her bedroom, leaving the door open.

Ranma was slightly on edge in her fiancée’s private room, glancing about for safe places to look. Nabiki gently grabbed their chin and made them look at her.

The two teens looked each other in the eye for a few moments before Nabiki let go of Ranma’s chin, just before her older sister snuck into the room with a grin, hands behind her back. “I hope you two aren’t being too forward now.”

Ranma turned his head away from his fiancée, cheeks burning hotly. Kasumi grinned wildly and winked at the black-haired girl. “It is a school night, after all. So, I’ve got you a uniform.”

Nabiki glanced at her sister. “Did Daddy know this was coming ahead of time?”

Kasumi shook her head and took a large dress out from behind her back. “No, but I thought since Ranma is about my size half the time…”

The blush returned hotly to the guest’s face as she looked at the dress. “... why?”

Kasumi dropped her grin and shifted her face into her most disarming smile. “Because, Ranma-chan, you’re going to get rained on eventually. Would you rather be embarrassed by your curse, or have some form of stability to your studies?”

Nabiki glanced the school dress over, before gently giving Ranma a squeeze on the shoulder. “Would you be comfortable, Ranma?”

They looked down at the dress they were currently wearing, then at the uniform. “I’ve only worn dresses outside when I’m cursed.”

“Hmm, that’s a point…” Nabiki left the room before explaining her thoughts, leaving Kasumi to lay the uniform out on her sister’s bed and gently smooth it out.

Ranma’s mind was whirling and they weren’t sure what they were thinking about. Kasumi sat down on the other side of her and smiled gently. “Would you prefer to stand out, or be another student focusing on their studies?”

They glanced at the eldest sibling, then looked down at his chest. “How could I make my birth form look anything like my cursed form?” Their hands squeezed at the sides of his hips. “I’m huge here and small here.” After pointing at her heart, their hands started nervously writhing in their lap.

Kasumi glanced out the doorway and toward her sisters. “I think Nabiki has some ideas.”

Akane was dragged into her sister’s room with her hands full of costume props. “I still don’t know how you remembered that was in there!”

Nabiki followed behind her with a handful of wigs. “When your little sister gets to play Romeo, you tend to remember.”

Ranma glanced at Kasumi, who had a bright glow about her. They wondered how long it would take to get through this ordeal, and tried to think of it as stealth training.


	3. Nabiki's Friends Find Out!

Genma had ruined the good time of Ranma’s makeover by demanding they go to bed early, recruiting Nabiki to escort her fiancé to school in the morning. His lips had gone thin and white when Kasumi showed off their outfit and the blonde wig they had styled into a cute braid for the martial artist.

Nabiki wished her sisters goodnight and ruminated on the harsh tone the elder Saotome used, as well as the faint, but very numerous scratches she had spotted on Ranma’s birth form’s legs, from mid calf upward.

Ranma at least seemed to enjoy the stability that the Tendo home provided, maybe that would get them out from the shadow of their father’s harsh methods.

Breakfast the next morning was tasty (as always was the case with Kasumi’s recipes) and Ranma seemed to perk up when Nabiki lambasted Genma for stealing food from his child. The engaged pair retired to Nabiki’s room to help Ranma with some light makeup and to fasten the wig to their head, before they took the lovingly made bento boxes Kasumi had prepared.

Nabiki made sure to give her sister a big hug, and smiled happily as Ranma bowed deeply in thanks. “See you tonight after work, sis!”

Kasumi told them she’d make sure Akane wasn’t too late after her post-jog bath, sending the two to walk the path to school in companionable silence.

Ranma seemed to relish the swish of the far longer skirt around their legs, a spring in their step as they played with the longer hair that the wig provided them. The dirty blonde hair had a braid on the right side of their head, leading into a ponytail (wrapped around their natural pigtail - testing in the bath that morning had proved this would secure it in case of transformations) and Ranma eyed the fence next to her with regret.

“What’s up, Ran-chan?” Nabiki asked, hip to hip with her fiancee.

“Wishing I had some sweatpants on so I could do balance training on the fence.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Nabiki said. “Maybe we can bring pants with you tomorrow and you can change at the end of the day?” She was enjoying the look of the makeup they had applied for Ranma this morning, with the more expensive waterproof stash that Nabiki kept for dates on the beach.

Ranma gave her a dazzling smile at the idea, and Nabiki felt the same rising heat in her cheeks she felt when holding their chin last night. The two made their way to Furinkan High, Nabiki’s face having mellowed out thankfully when they approached the masses of boys with sports equipment milling about.

Nabiki took Ranma by the elbow and steered them inside the building. “You’ll want to see the show from above, you can see the airtime she’s able to pull off.”

Ranma didn’t protest overmuch as Nabiki deposited them next to a trio of girls camping out on the balcony outside her homeroom, one girl sharing Nabiki’s haircut but with a lighter shade of brown, the second with shoulder-length orange hair, and the third with a natural green pixie cut complimenting her glasses.

“Girls, this is Ranma, she’s staying at my house. Ranma, this is Ryonami,” That was Brown, “Kikuko,” Orange, “and of course the hellion Kotone.” Green waved a hand before lounging against Nabiki’s shoulder and pointing at a few different clusters of students.

Kikuko gave a smile to Ranma and swept a hand over the assembly below them. “Kendo, boxing, football, soccer, all of them absolutely useless.”

Ryonami murmured some numbers softly to Nabiki, pressed to her other side. Ranma awkwardly stood at the other end of the balcony to their fiancée, glancing over her friends with a confused air. “So, uh, what’s all this about?”

“Akane’s other morning workout.” Kotone said with a chuckle. Nabiki gave her friend a glare as Kikuko sighed at the sight of their target approaching. “The poor girl…”

Ranma noticed the boys below them beginning to gear up to attack the slowly approaching Akane, but Nabiki managed to put a restraining hand on their inner elbow before they could do something crazy like run through the school to attack them from behind. “She wouldn’t appreciate you interrupting her fight, Ranma.”

Saotome reluctantly nodded and took up Ryonami’s position to Nabiki’s flank, their hips pressing again as they watched the carnage below. Ryonami was making notes in a small book while comparing the flying students to a protractor and level, and Kotone was moving herself to better view the next round of the morning’s chaos.

The last student concious who was breaking the uniform code started prattling on and threw a rose at Akane, Nabiki explaining he was the one to set up the morning fights with “the boorish lot” a month back.

Ranma scowled at that information. “So he’s treating this as some game?”

Kotone reached her hand around Nabiki’s shoulders to give Ranma’s a squeeze. “Yep, biggest ego at the school.” Ranma glanced at her before looking back down at the ensuing fight, Tatewaki flinging his sheathed sword at Akane and catching it after it bounced off her shoulder.

Nabiki shook her head. “He thinks he can bully his way into dating my sister. Somehow got it in his head that if he beats her up that means he can claim her.”

Ranma made a rude gesture at the ‘Shooting Star’ below even as Akane kicked him hard in the face and knocked him down. “So he’s toying with her until he goes all out, then. Honourless bastard.”

“Don’t let Kuno-baby know you think that, he’s very big on his lineage.” Kikuko said with a light repeating motion of her wrist. Ryonami snorted at that, then gave the notebook over to Nabiki.

“Right, newbie, you better go meet Akane and head into class.” Kotome said, stepping away from Nabiki now that the entertainment was over.

  


* * *

  


The two younger residents of the Tendo estate met in the locker room, Akane grunting to herself as she dropped a pile of letters from her shoe locker onto the ground.

Ranma scooped a few up and glanced at them. “You miss homework on the weekend or something?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s the other half that don’t wait outside trying to ask me out. Sometimes they attack me and write poetry at the same time like Kuno.”

Ranma frowned at that. “So, bin?” Akane nodded and watched with satisfaction as he dumped the offensive wastes of paper.

The two made their way to class and Ranma dutifully took his place at the front to be introduced. Akane was still unsure how she felt about her sisters’ plan, and felt slightly annoyed that one of her swimsuits was under the houseguest’s clothes at the moment due to the fact today’s swim class was going to strain their plans today.

Ranma was introduced with the factoid that ‘she’ had travelled through China recently, and was asked to sit next to Akane due to his current residency. Akane tried to help the new student out as best she could, wanting to see her sister not get saddled with a dumb jock.

When lunchtime came around, Akane sat on the edge of Ranma's table with a dazzling smile. "Let's see what Kasumi put in your lunch, hmm?" She unwrapped her own, showing off an artfully displayed tower with long seaweed green hair cascading down it. Akane couldn't help but smile at the dual acknowledgement of how long her hair had grown out, and the fairy tale roles she used to act in.

Ranma's own bento had a chibi version of 'herself' napping in a big comfy bed, looking like Goldilocks. Akane gave a chuckle at that and, as was a normal part of the daily ritual, showed off her own art to her friends.

Ranma tried to eat slowly and savour the fluffy egg hair, but soon was swirling his chopsticks in the rice while looking at Akane.

The blue-haired Tendo caught Ranma looking and returned a quizzical look of her own, prompting the crossdressing boy to give a goofy grin. "You did really well out there this morning. Has your master been teaching you endurance drills?"

Akane bit down her innate resentment before admitting how many years she had been going alone with her study. Ranma looked stunned, then laid a hand on her forearm. "We need to get you some proper training so that arrogant toerag doesn't get the easy win he expects when he stops holding back."

Akane dropped her chopsticks and slowly turned to look at the houseguest with gentle tears in her eyes. "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course, will have to figure out a way of training that isn't exactly like pops did it though… don't know where I'd get the wolves…"

Akane hugged Ranma tight and happily said "I'm so glad my sister has such a thoughtful fiancee!"

  


* * *

  


Yuka wasn't half as perceptive as others in her year, but being close friends to 'It's okay if it's' Akane, most popular girl in school for both male and female crushes meant she tended to keep her ears open for queer happenstance.

"Ohhh? How did this come about?" Yuka asked as she popped a sweet cherry tomato into her mouth and grinned at the blonde.

Ranma seemed to stiffen in Akane's grasp for a moment before giving a light laugh. "It's a bit of a funny story, though Nabiki can probably tell it better than I can." Her friends agreed that was probably the best source of answers so, re-sealing their lunches Akane's friend group sought out her sister.

Six girls made their way into room 2-E, Akane being buffered from Kuno's sight on all sides. Yuka followed Ranma to the back corner of the room where Nabiki was holding court with her friends, a half eaten bento on the desk in front of her.

"H-hi Nabiki." The blonde haired girl said, fidgeting with her ponytail in one hand. "Akane mentioned the, ah, joke. About us being. Engaged." A shrug of one shoulder before the blushing girl smiled. "I thought you could do the story justice."

Nabiki picked up her chopsticks and proceeded to narrate as her father and a deep voiced person. "Oh, my dear friend Saotome, one day we will join the schools!" "Brilliant Tendo! You lay down roots and I will take my child across the world, making them the best there is!" "Yes, we are brilliant, aren't we! My own children will be happy to find out about this arrangement!"

Yuka blinked in confusion as Nabiki put the utensils down. "Naturally, neither Daddy or Mr Saotome took into account what would happen if they all had kids of the same gender." She rolled her eyes then glanced about, jotting down on a piece of small notebook paper and handing it to Ranma.

The blonde blushed harder and nodded, before Nabiki grinned and told the 9 girls they could pass it around as long as they kept the note secret. Yuka nodded and took the scrap, giving a small smile when she saw 'Do you trust them?' … and a even bigger smile with a small thumbs up Nabiki’s way when she saw the reverse side said 'I'm bisexual'.

Yuka soon passed the note along, her hand acting as a muffler for the shocked Akane, before whispering in her ear "Don't blab, trust your sister."

Kotone looked pleased when she saw the note, Nabiki calmly eating the scrap of paper once all of her and Akane's friends saw it. "So you can see why I went along with the 'joke' for now. Honour demands it, plus Daddy wants a master to take control of the dojo."

Ranma punched a hand into her fist. "Which is why Akane's going to be my first student." Ryonami perked up at that declaration and raised a hand, shocking the blonde into accepting her as a second student.

Kotone lazily rested a hand on the back of Nabiki's seat as Ryonami began excitedly asking Akane for tips on what to bring, clothing and attitude wise to the dojo.

Yuka couldn't help but grin and sat down to finish her own lunch with the others, the gloomy atmosphere hopefully enough to block out Kuno snooping on them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! We meet Nabiki's squad. Like Yuka and Sasuke, they are inventions of the anime.
> 
> Unfortunately, Kikuko and Ryonami show up in exactly two episodes, and Nabiki's third person she shares the balcony with never even appears in the anime. So, all three are somewhat OCs - collaborated on with the help of the Ranma 1/2 discord I'm a part of.
> 
> Kotone is entirely an original character, while Kikuko and Ryonami are like... one or two lines of dialogue each expanded with discord discussion ideas.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the supporting cast!


	4. The End Of Occhan's

Nabiki was rather proud of herself for remembering that Akane’s class would be doing swimming that afternoon. The Tendo sisters had debated with Ranma about how to handle things regarding getting changed at school (and potentially getting CHANGED at school), and Nabiki had volunteered to come with Ranma to see the school nurse and get an exception set up.

The nurse had been shocked when finding out about the magic, but at Nabiki’s prompting decided to write Ranma a note saying they could change for sports lessons in privacy. Akane ran interference with the rest of the girls, telling them that their father was an idiot and enrolled them into a boys school earlier in life in between all the travelling, since it was cheaper. The excuse was that Ranma was painfully shy and didn’t want to be a burden to anyone.

So, Nabiki got to give her fiancé a hug when she saw them in a cute one piece swimsuit, and wished them luck with the remainder of the day. All in all, a good start to the last class of the day. Even if she did have to be singled out for getting back to class late, her grades were good enough that she wasn’t forced into the hall since she was helping with “administrative matters”.

When Nabiki came to give Ranma the tour back home at the end of the day, the wig was still dripping water and keeping Ranma in their shorter form. “We might need to see if we can bring a hair dryer to the nurse’s office, alongside those extra pants tomorrow.” Nabiki mused as Ranma wrung out the ponytail.

“That was a pretty good day.” Ranma agreed, enjoying the slower speed of the walk while looking over routes for training. Ryonami and Akane were chatting quietly ahead of the partners, giving Nabiki a chance to carry Ranma’s satchel.

“So, homework before Arts?” Nabiki asked, and Ranma glanced at their erstwhile students. “My friends and I tend to like to get ahead of things.” Nabiki explained, and her fiancee shrugged at that.

“Maybe we can all study in the lounge or dojo…” They murmured to themself, before Nabiki shook her head. “Akane and I have desks in our rooms, I’m sure if we work together in our year levels we can get through things quicker.”

Ryonami and Akane detoured from the straight path to the Tendo dojo to inform the older girl’s parents of her studying at the dojo, Ranma explaining that tonight would be a quiet test of their abilities and that they’d know what schedule the training would take after that night. The wig was thankfully dry by that point, so Nabiki felt good enough to take Ranma’s now-dry hand on the last leg of the trip home.

Ranma’s blush when the differently aged teens split into Akane and Nabiki’s rooms was quite adorable, and Ryonami had waited until Nabiki closed her door and got the homework out to ask why Akane was keeping her door open.

“Ah, we’re still getting used to Ranma in the house.” Nabiki hedged, before getting to work on the problems for the night.

When Ranma knocked on Nabiki’s door later and retrieved Ryonami for evaluation in the dojo, a spare gi from back when Daddy actually taught at the dojo was given to the older girl and Nabiki lent her friend some privacy. “You guys have fun?”

Akane griped about Ranma needing help with the homework, and the martial artist countered with their general lack of education, and the fact that she’d be getting help with the Art, which mollified the youngest Tendo. Nabiki gave them a small smile and congratulated Ranma on a successful first day at school, then left to talk with her older sister.

The gi-clad trio paraded past the kitchen and went out to the dojo as Nabiki sat up on the kitchen counter, giving her sister a grin. “So, I ah… came out a bit today?”

Kasumi turned away from where she was putting dishes away and gave her sister a big smile. “And what happened?”

“Nobody rejected me, though one of Akane’s friends had to put her hand over her mouth.”

“... Akane’s friends? What happened, exactly?”

Nabiki explained her half-truth with Ranma and Kasumi gave a smile, glad that her sister was proud enough about herself to share it with relatively unknown people.

“And if the truth comes out as a rumour and I get shunned, well, I know who to blame.” Nabiki said with a wry grin. Kasumi rolled her eyes at that. “So what were the parents up to today?”

“Shogi and quiet conversation, mostly.” Kasumi said with a shrug. “Father had a small amount of time to spend at the council, and Mr Saotome spent that time practicing fighting as his cursed form.”

Nabiki sighed, worried about the family coffers as usual, before giving her sister a hug. “I’m glad none of you guys rejected me.” She had been worried about Akane’s reaction, given her response to the Horde at school.

Kasumi returned the hug threefold, before recruiting Nabiki to help with getting the table set up for dinner.

  


* * *

  


Akane was quite good for someone who had been self-taught for over half her life, Ranma mused as they worked to correct her form slightly, explaining the reasoning behind the corrected movement. “We need to get you to the point you flow through these without thinking. Then we can start figuring out points to advance on.” The trainer of the three had a proud smile on her face as she watched Akane repeating the corrected kata, before turning to help turn Ryonami’s half-remembered karate into the looser Anything Goes style.

Ranma gently slowed the older girl’s movements again. “You’re getting overexcited again.” He gently chided, earning a sheepish grin in response. “Read the recipe before you fire up the wok.” Akane stumbled at that comparison, but got back to her practice after a moment.

The well-travelled artist had their students stop their movements for now, deciding to show off. “This is what you can learn after…” She shrugged. “Maybe a year?” She then leapt straight up from her standing location, flipping around in midair and springboarding off the dojo ceiling, landing on their hands and kicking out at invisible opponents to each side of himself. They flowed like water as they rolled along his back and stood up sharply, a rising uppercut before falling back into a loose stance.

Akane looked suitably impressed, but Ryonami’s eyes were on the top of Ranma’s head. Ranma reached a hand behind his head and scratched at it confusedly, feeling her pigtail in their hand as they sheepishly laughed.

“So were you just going for a new look, or..?” Ryonami said as she pointed to a lump on the ground. A blonde lump. Ranma glanced at their wig then picked it up in a hurry, dusting it off.

Akane took care of grooming the wig again and undoing its french braid, surreptitiously watching Ranma from the corner of her eye. The black-haired youth laughed a little, before stretching slightly. “Do you believe in magic?”

Ryonami shook her head, naturally. Ranma nods. “That’s why I wear the wig. Most people wouldn’t be able to ignore a change in hair colour…” She beckoned the older girl to follow her to the kitchen, Akane trotting along behind.

Nabiki was just getting off the kitchen counter as Ranma entered, leading Ryonami to the sink. “Put your hand on their head.” Nabiki murmured. “And don’t blink.”

Ranma soon found themself a good head lower than Ryonami’s hand, which was just before flush to the top of his head. Ranma turned around and gave a bow. “Tadaa, the magic of the Curse of Drowned Girl. No idea whose body I’m stuck in.” A readjustment to her sports bra before they regained their former height, waiting for Ryonami’s response to the shock.

“... so what benefits does that give you in combat?” Ranma grinned wildly at the response, and they caught the matching grin on Nabiki’s face in his peripheral vision.

  


* * *

  


Kotone knew she was special. She had sensed at an early age the weight of Narrative. Her home town was Important, like Juuban's frequent monster attacks. She sensed that both wards had a build up of pressure of some kind, and the martial artists and other worldly invaders were a way the world let that pressure out.

And Kotone could tell when and where the chaos would start to burst out. It made her invaluable to the team of 2-E's experts on placing bets, making plans, and other forms of soothsaying. It didn't hurt that their ringleader was a major hottie, nor that her suspicion about Nabiki’s feelings for girls were confirmed.

The green-haired sage swooned slightly as she and Kikuko stood waiting outside the locked nurse's office, confiding in the team's major statistic tactician. "I'm freaking out K!" Kotone said, fanning her cheek with one hand.

"So you know now. But she's got this 'engagement' thing…" Kikuko tried to temper her friends' excitement.

"K, I'm picking up the most beautiful Tendo from work for dinner!" Kotone spoke up to cover the sound of Ranma's hairdryer. She continued quietly "We've been friends for years, how can I think a joke of an engagement would make her choose someone else? It's practically a date!"

Kikuko rolled her eyes and gave Kotone a squeeze on the shoulder. "Don't wig out." Ranma walked out of the office with her hair neatly arranged, pants on under a cute chinese dress. "Hey Ranma, Nabiki asked us to guide you to Ryonami’s place for more study tonight."

The fancily dressed woman gave a quiet agreement, visibly shocking Kikuko when she leapt onto the fences flanking their path. Kotone waggled her fingers at her friend. "The chaos is strong in this one, I warned you."

Ranma waved goodbye to the older students as she began tutoring Ryonami on how to balance on the curb of the street.

  


* * *

  


The classrooms of his father's school were empty, like the hollowed halls of yaw. His mind was awash with the words he had heard moments before: The most beautiful Tendo was working at some place called 'Occhan's', and he just knew that surprising his love at the end of a relaxing day of work with a hug would make her night complete.

The newly renamed Blue Thunder was careful to keep his musings of how best to woo the beauteous Akane under his breath, where none of the boors in the yard outside could hear him.

Those vile beasts, tainting the honourable test of blade against fist, love against love, with this notion that Tatewaki would permit those gutter-stock whelps to date the most wonderful girl in Furinkan High… they were as stupid as they were low born.

The young Kuno winced as an errant soccer ball bounced off his face, briefly yelling at the miscreant who dared try to harm his lovely image, before returning to his musings.

  


* * *

  


Maybe now that idiot Kuno would stop calling us all inbred morons… and maybe cows would fart themselves to Jupiter. In any case, the soccer team got to discussing what they had heard the upperclassman rambling about.

  


* * *

  


"Occhan's? Gosh, she must be why the food's so good! I've got to try it!" The boxing club president said.

  


* * *

  


"Akane is so pure of heart she'd certainly be willing to give away food at a discount to anyone who could beat her!"

  


* * *

  


The afternoon shift as a waitress at a small café like Occhan's was hardly glamorous, but it earnt enough to keep her family in the black, and that was the important part to Nabiki.

The owner was a kind middle-aged woman who wore her black hair in a high ponytail when she worked, and enjoyed spending time at the local indoor pool.

Nabiki started to worry when she spotted the bag full of hockey sticks in custody of a face she half remembered. The normally innocuous sight of a small group of teens playing four square outside twinged a small klaxon in her head…

No, boys, she corrected herself as the mounting horror of the situation began to make itself clear. Every customer right now was a boy. From Furinkan High.

And her boss was about to come out of the back room with her hair down, in a swimsuit.

Nabiki rushed to the phone to dial her family doctor's number.

  


* * *

  


Mrs Occhan slipped her wedding ring into the locker at the back of her restaurant, brushing her hair out of its bun and letting it cascade down the back of her neck. She patted down the front of her one piece swimsuit, feeling good at herself for staying fit. “Tendo! I’m going out!”

Nabiki was on the phone as the short woman entered the front of the restaurant, glad to see a good day's work done through the streetlights outside. The various tables cleaned up and pushed to the edges of the room, with chairs standing sentinel in an honour guard made her feel quite regal.

There seemed to be some late night customers milling about the front of the store, a bunch of teenagers who couldn’t take the hint of a store with its lights off. One of them saw her through the door and she pulled the towel she was taking with her to the gym and held it in front of her.

There was a rumble as the boy started trying to wedge his… why was he carrying a hockey stick? But the odd item was being shoved into the edge of the door jam.

“Nabiki, I hope you’re calling the police…” She said as she started to back away from the door, grabbing a chair after quickly tying the towel about her waist. She held it in front of herself protectively.

Three boys were levering the locked door open along the hockey stick before a kid with boxing gloves on wandered up and punched through the door’s glass. Mrs Occhan screamed in shock.

The hockey stick snapped as a surge of boys started approaching the door as the boxer cleared the glass away, shards sticking in his gloves. Boy after boy started stepping through the glass, not bothering with the door, until one wannabe sumo reached through and unlocked the door so he could squeeze through. They formed a rough semicircle around Mrs Occhan, backing her into the counter.

Nabiki hung up the phone and turned to face the group. “This isn’t my sister, this is my boss!”

The boy with the broken hockey stick hissed out through his goalie mask. “You’d say anything to make us leave, you heartless wench.”

Mrs Occhan started waving the chair in front of her. “I’ve heard about you! Get out of here now or I’ll press charges!”

“Akane, don’t deny our love!” Another of the boys, one near the back, yelled out. “Let us beat you and earn a date!” A soccerball hit one of the unlit lights in the ceiling, shattering the bulb and the peace in the room as the mob of teenagers started to attack.

  


* * *

  


Tofu Ono had, in his heart of hearts, been hoping that the youngest Tendo daughter had been exaggerating. But as he adjusted the twisted arm of the twentieth high schooler that night and went about setting broken hands once again, he started to think that Akane might not have been lying about the… sprained crotch… amorous 'paramours' she faced every morning. This one will need plaster…

He was glad that Nabiki and her green-haired friend were treating the owner of the restaurant for shock in the back room. This child had scratches all over his face and, after a moments thought he got the crying pervert on his feet and out the door. "Be sure to tell your mother what you were up to, hm?"

Ono turned a level look at the remaining injured students and said compassionately "If you'd like, I can write you exemptions from your homework until your hands work again. I'd just have to explain in the notes to your teachers and parents what caused the, ah… accident."

  


* * *

  


"I just don't understand how this happened!" Kotone said for the thirteenth time as she waved goodbye to Mrs Occhan.

Nabiki saw her future paychecks eroding into dust as the traumatised woman started looking at the card of a realtor Nabiki fetched for her, before turning to her friend and giving her lower forearm a clasp. "This is just your first miss, is all." The two stepped past a confused Tatewaki Kuno, or tried to.

Kotone looked up from the bokken impeding her path. "... yes, upperclassman?"

"Knave! I distinctly heard you say the most beautiful Tendo would be having dinner here! Where is Akane?" His other hand shook a few petals loose from the roses he brought with him.

Nabiki grabbed the roses and bowed quickly. "I'll ensure my sister hears all about this, Kuno-baby. We really must be getting home now." The confused looking wannabe samurai absorbed the information, visibly refiltered it and adjusted it to his worldview before giving a stoic nod and wandering away.

"... I caused this?" Kotone murmured to herself as Nabiki started the trip home. She handed the roses over to the green-haired girl and grinned wryly.

Kotone blushed a little as she realised she was caught out, before going back to worrying to herself. Nabiki heard her murmur "I must be missing something if I'm so far off I'm causing outbreaks..."

The premier bookie of Furinkan High paused for a moment and then quickly said goodbye to her friend-crush-friend, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before running home.

Kotone snapped out of it after half a block if the flustered "See you at school tomorrow!" echoing through the night streets was any indication.

  


* * *

  


"She can what now?" Ranma asked at dinner.

"To a limited extent guess the future. If she knows enough variables." Nabiki explained, their fiancée patiently explaining magic while sitting next to the 300 pound panda that sired him.

"But she didn't see your job shutting down?" They asked as they moved her bowl of stir fry out of the path of Soun's tears.

As Kasumi got the mop out again and lightly drummed it against Soun's ticklish spots until he stopped crying, Nabiki gave her fiancee a squeeze on the hand before returning to her dinner. "It was more Kuno's fault more than anything. I have a few plans to get the lost income out of him."

Akane had been quite glad to hear about the maiming of her chief harassers while she had been training with Ryonami on balance drills. "The roses couldn't have been cheap." She mused as she caught their eye.

Ranma shrugged. "It was nice of you to give them to Kotone." He said with a dazzling smile in Nabiki's direction, mildly confusing them when she looked guilty in response.

"Ah, Ranma, Akane, can you guys get back to me tomorrow night if you'd be OK with pictures from your training sessions being sold to Kuno?" Nabiki asked. "Think over it during school, I'll be asking Ryonami at lunch."

Akane locked eyes with Ranma for a moment before giving the tiniest of shrugs. They nodded lightly and went back to eating. "So what do you think Kotone is missing to throw her sense out of whack?"

Nabiki looked even more guilty and said "If you don't mind, I'd rather discuss that with you in private before bed. Maybe we can both grab some swimsuits and grab a bath together?"

Soun's face was warring between pleasure and dislike, and Kasumi smiled and said "Finally going to wash Ranchan's back?"

Akane rolled her eyes. "You're definitely buying me a new swimsuit after this, Nabiki."

Ranma felt heat rising up her cheeks even as Nabiki explained that the bathroom was the most private place in the house. Their mind was whirling and he couldn't think of an answer before Nabiki clarified for her "We don't have to yet if you don't feel comfortable, Ranma."

Genma gave his sometimes-son a sideways hug, holding up a sign that read [It's more clothes than when we bathed together, at least!]. Ranma snorted and laid back against her father, hand patting at their stomach contentedly. "If I don't feel up to it, can we talk in your room instead?"

Nabiki's smile in response was heartwarming and Ranma felt truly safe in that moment… even if they could hear the sound of his omnivorous father's stomach digesting the meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Added a bit of clarity from Mrs Occhan's POV


	5. Nabiki's Sick? Revenge!

Nabiki was grateful her fiancé felt comfortable enough with her already to share a bath, even if both of them were wearing cute one-piece swimsuits. She didn’t want to press them further than they were ready to go, so she simply slipped into the hot bath after a perfunctory rinse.

She waited until Ranma was relaxing in the bath before moving her way to sit next to them, looking at the bathroom wall and wondering how to start to talk about the engagement so far.

“Are you enjoying school so far, Ranma dear?” Nabiki said to the wall with a smile.

“It’s been a bit hard to get back in the swing of things, but having friends to learn with does help.” They replied, still blushing slightly in Nabiki’s peripheral vision.

Nabiki made an agreeable noise as she slowly slunk into the water down to her chin. “Any of my or Akane’s friends you like hanging out with?”

Ranma chuckled, the peripheral looking like the martial artist turned to face Nabiki. “It’s real nice to try out training, especially if we want to get Akane running the dojo eventually. Ryonami seems a bit over excitable, makes me worry about her first real fight.”

Nabiki glanced in Ranma’s direction and, now that she knew they were looking at her, turned to face them with a smile. “And how are you feeling about the engagement so far?”

Ranma glanced away, before looking back in Nabiki’s eyes with a deep blush. “I… don’t mind it.”

Nabiki scooted her side against her fiancé, giving them a sideways hug. “I very much don’t mind it either.” She teased, giving a smile.

“... so ah… the…” Ranma fidgeted and scooted away from Nabiki for a moment. “Giving the roses to Kotone didn’t mean anything?”

Nabiki blushed and glanced down at the steamy water. “... No, it meant something. Knowing Kotone’s ability meant I kind of need to be honest to at least her.” She smiled at Ranma. “And you, of course. I’m attracted to both of you.”

Ranma hugged their knees up to their chin, face burning up. “... so how honest do others need to be with her?” They said after a while of thinking and quietly watching her.

Nabiki reached over and squeezed lightly at Ranma’s shoulder. “Only as much as you want to be. We can adjust the books, squeeze more money out of rich idiots, to compensate for any adjusted chaos.” She smiled and scooted back next to her fiancé. “I’ll keep your secrets, any that you care to share.” Her eyes raked over the black-haired teen’s knees again, noting the frequent scratches again.

Nabiki sensed her fiancé was catching where she’d been looking, and when she looked up at their face they seemed hesitant. Their eyes were glancing at their knees and then they said, their tone telling her that this was a lesser secret given up to hide a far more powerful one, “I think I’m attracted to you too… but also to a couple other girls.”

Nabiki smiled and returned to hugging the side of her fiancé. “Anyone I know?” She said with a smile.

“Well… knowing I’m not the only one with magic in my life is a bit of a relief, so finding that out about Kotone was nice… and there’s one girl who was nice to me for a bit… before she started trying to kill me.” A sad look on their face. “She was my first kiss, too. On the cheek at least.”

Nabiki turned and smiled at Ranma, resting her forehead against theirs. “I’m sorry she overreacted, was this after your curse?”

Ranma blushed and nodded, leading to Nabiki brushing the younger person’s hair away from their face. She gently leaned in and gave her fiancee a kiss on the cheek. She giggled as she felt their brain short out, giving Ranma a pat on the head before stepping out of the bath.

“Consider that a goodnight kiss, dear, we both have homework to do.”

  


* * *

  


Akane was pleasantly surprised the morning following the blow-up at Nabiki’s job, as it seemed most of the Horde was injured enough to stay out of the morning’s brawl. She relished the pain she was able to inflict on those who had been stuck with other commitments then deadpanned her way through Kuno’s infuriating rejection of taking her skills seriously.

Not that she’d enjoy it the day he finally did go all out, but at least then she’d be able to defeat him once and for all. She hoped.

Akane ended her bout with Kuno by throwing him by his kendo outfit into his favourite tree, and even managed to get to class early. Ranma gave her a small wave when he entered the class and she gave her sensei a beaming grin in return. Several of the boys in the class with casts on their arms looked over the moon to catch the reflected beauty of it, earning them a narrow-eyed scowl.

Some days it felt like Akane couldn’t stay happy for a god damned minute before some jerk of a boy ruined it for her.

Her second smile of the day when she heard one of the injured boys actually owning up to the assault of Mrs Occhan - in not so many words - prompting all of those with injuries being sent to stand outside with buckets balanced on their heads. The resulting lesson was far more educational than normal, and the sound of dozing students being startled by loud splashing of buckets in the hall and a brief interruption of their teacher shouting “MOP!” at the door.

Akane feigned ignorance when notes started passing around asking about the injuries, only saying it wasn’t her and that her sister probably knew. At least that should hopefully get the family some more spending money… she also was hoping to get a cute swimsuit to replace Ranma’s first one.

  


* * *

  


The rest of Ranma’s first week at school was rather uneventful - the martial artists agreed to start with “secret” photos of their sessions next week, the fathers reconnected and got the panda a part-time job, introducing the local doctor to the concept of magic - and providing said panda with a confidant.

The injured classmates recovered by the weekend, though the owner of the fast food place declined any attempts to return to Nerima, giving Nabiki two week’s pay to prep the building for sale saturday night. The now-jobless teen overextended and Genma offered to give a lift to the family doctor in the morning.

  


* * *

  


Ranma dutifully carried their fiancée in a piggyback from her room to the doctor, following the directions Kasumi had jotted down on a small notepad. There was tension as the teens slowly made their way through the doorway to the clinic, but it dissipated when the red-haired teen slid the door shut behind him.

Ranma set the exhausted girl down on one of the waiting rooms’ padded benches, Nabiki slowly rolling over and resting her head on the bench. Ranma’s eyes weakened at the sight, his guard down.

Then the diminutive girl saw a skeleton’s hand grasp their shoulder.

Ranma leapt into the air and grabbed onto the light fixture, staring at the small child-sized skeleton as its puppeteer made it bashfully rub the back of its skull.

“Pardon me!” The dark robed man said as the skeleton toed at Ranma’s discarded shoes, Nabiki weakly laughing at the doctor’s antics.

Ranma slowly tugged his fingers from the metal frame of the long boxy light, warily looking from the bizarre skeleton apparently being introduced to them as Betty to the nonplussed receptionist.

"N-nice to meet you… Betty?" Ranma hedged, bowing to the puppet and her owner, who both bowed in return. They were shocked when the strange man then went and asked the receptionist who he was next to treat and brought one of the middle aged women calmly waiting into the back room.

Ranma slunk down to sit on the floor in front of Nabiki, confused and leaning their head back against his fiancée’s leg. Not wanting to make the exhausted girl talk too much, Ranma just gently held her hand and meditated with his eyes closed until she sensed the doctor returning.

Ranma didn't reach the ceiling when Betty poked the top of their red mop of hair but he had leapt to their feet, moving to defend the weakened Nabiki.

The puppeteer had Betty raise her arms in mock surrender and gave Ranma time to calm their beating heart down a second time, before helping the now-dozing Nabiki into the examination room.

"So are you a friend of the Tendos?" The eccentric doctor asked as he put Betty on a stand and pondered whether to have them wait outside.

"My father has been for a long time, though I've only really met them last week." Ranma gave the length of their skirt a thorough cataloging with hand and eye as he fidgeted in place. "We're staying with them ah… probably indefinitely?" They didn't feel comfortable explaining how two seeming girls were engaged.

The doctor - Tofu, the martial artist finally had a name thankfully - had Ranma wait outside while Nabiki was taken care of.

Ranma eventually helped walk the weakened Tendo home after the doctor confirmed that some of the assaulting teenagers had left behind chemical traps in the other nights' chaos, and Nabiki was to sleep the next day off with a herbal medicine spread under her nose to help get her over the dizzy spell.

Nabiki dragged Ranma to the phone and had her dial the numbers of her friends, informing them of her absence tomorrow and asking them to drop by for a strategy meeting at dinner.

  


* * *

  


Kotone waited patiently at the door to the Tendo compound, getting no current chaotic vibes from the area around her. Which is probably the best since Nabiki was still reeling from the aftershocks of her miss.

A small frown tugged at her lips as she once again reprimanded herself for her failure. When Soun answered the door she was able to bow in greeting and make her way through to the lounge, where her other friends were already doting on Nabiki.

Kikuko gave a small wave as Kotone sat down, while Ryonami was engrossed in a discussion with Akane. Ranma and Kasumi weren't present, and Kotone gave the large panda in a pair of sweatpants playing a strategy game quietly with Soun a quizzical look.

Nabiki gave a small wave and patted the empty spot to one side of her. "I'm not contagious."

Kotone hugged her friend before seating herself next to her. "So, strategy meeting?"

"Mm. Over food. Ran and Kas are cooking right now." Kotone gave a pitying glance at the way Akane's ears turned pink and she curled in on herself, noting surprisingly that a curl of chaos about the younger girl was tucking itself away rather than laying dormant.

Kotone glanced at the confused and dazed Nabiki, before turning to consult whisperingly with Kikuko. "What’s changed about Akane?"

"Gratitude about the training?" Kikuko asked, the soundboard method sometimes helping pin things down.

"... close but not quite. It tastes kinda embarrassment based."

Akane noticed them whispering and glanced at them warily, Kotone smiling and apologizing for not having any shared interests to bond over.

"You're here to help my sister, that's good enough for me." Kotone nodded in response and idly began leaning into Nabiki's side, getting a pat on her knee in return.

Ranma and Kasumi soon came out with the food, and Nabiki murmured to Kotone “Hey, try and stop any water spills please?” The middle-aged man entering the room alongside Mr Tendo paused mid-step as he approached the table, seating himself next to the house’s owner and companionably serving him food before himself.

Kotone sensed the small vase at the centre of the table was starting to develop a curl of chaos, so reached out, took it in hand and made a show of smelling the flower, refusing to let go of the vase until it calmed down. Both Ranma and Nabiki were smiling thankfully at her actions.

Nabiki slowed her eating after a while and sighed before saying loudly. “So, I want us to focus particularly hard on Tatewaki and the chemistry club this month, but if we can fleece Akane’s stalkers more than usual as well that would be for the best.”

Akane nodded in thanks to Nabiki, as Kotone put the vase back down.

Mr Tendo was starting to gear up for one of his requisite five crying bursts of the day, so Kotone reached over and lightly pushed him away from the table. “Spurned from the table by a guest, my daughter forced to subject herself to petty revenge!” he cried at the wall, as the other adult in the room traded places with Kasumi for some reason.

“It’s hardly petty if I’m planning on fleecing them out of my missing income, Daddy.” Nabiki corrected mildly, wrapping an arm around both Kotone’s waist and Ranma’s. “Once dinner’s done for the rest of you we’re going to give you a small demonstration of something you need to know, and then I want to talk to the two of you.”

Kotone was blushing madly at her friend’s contact and weathered the amused looks of her friends as she ate her way through the rest of the delicious food.

  


* * *

  


Ranma prepared the kettle to the transformation temperature their father preferred while she returned to his birth form due to some sloshing as they did the dishes. They handed clean dishes over for Kasumi to dry and put away, trying to keep an eye on where each one went.

“Ah, could you get a couple of glasses of water ready for me too Kasumi?” Ranma asked the older girl, who gave a smile and nodded. “I kinda… want to at least show off part of the curse to Kotone, if it’ll help you guys get money.”

“Thank you Ranma, you’re a very considerate young woman.” Kasumi answered with a smile, Ranma’s pigtail tweaking out and making their wig jostle around and her braid come loose.

The kettle cooled down from its full boil, so Ranma dried their hands and took it outside to where Kotone was waiting, confused. Her jaw dropped open when Genma tipped a bit of the vase water onto himself after loosening his gi, the panda pushing the vase and flower back into the sage’s hands.

“Hey pops, do you wanna spar first or change back right away? You still feeling off-balance?” The panda shrugged and Ranma passed the kettle to Akane with a smile, before focusing themself and jumping up onto the thick stone fence of the Tendo compound, balancing and lightly teasing their father for the lack of height on his vertical leap.

The panda and physically male fighter danced along the fence line, bouncing back and forth and making a show of the spar. Genma got a hit in and Ranma bounded onto the tree, swinging around a branch with both legs and calling out a stop. “You got this one fair and square old man! Now show off the second half of the curse off!”

Ranma idly swung around the branch a few times before carefully climbing down the tree, avoiding the koi pond and coming over to bow next to her father. “We didn’t have time to show off properly tonight, since Nabiki wants to talk with the both of us and she needs her rest.”

Kotone was looking back and forth between the blonde and the former panda. “This is… a lot to find out. Is there any extra information you might have?”

Ranma tapped her father on the shoulder and he passed Kotone the chinese guidebook. “I don’t have the translation we were working on, we lost it in the ocean on the swim back.”

Ranma chuckled at his fathers’ words. “Yah, we were in a bit of a hurry.”

“We might be able to get away with a few days wait while you digest things.” Nabiki warned. “We have one last thing to talk over.” Ranma picked her fiancée up and walked her to her room, Kotone following behind. After depositing Nabiki on her bed and retrieving the medicine, Ranma sat at her desk and measure the temperature of the two glasses Kasumi dropped off a few moments later.

“So, I told Ranma about my attraction to you…” Nabiki began, glancing at Kotone who blushed severely. Ranma sighed gently.

“You need to know that the engagement thing isn’t a joke, though.” Ranma waited until Kotone looked at them, then pulled off the wig and gave a small smile as her black hair was revealed. “I was born a boy and got a curse of my own.” With that, they demonstrated their variation of the curse.

“And ah…” Ranma glanced at Nabiki, who gave her a smile. “I kinda… wouldn’t mind findin’ out if we’d work together as like…”

“Some kind of couple. Or, uh, more?” Kotone asked.

“Yea! If it’d make my fiancée happy, I’m all for it.” Ranma said with a grin.

Nabiki wrapped the conversation up by yawning and Ranma sat on the edge of the bed to help apply the vapor rub, before leaving with Kotone.

“So uh… can I ask… what do you think of yourself as?” Kotone asked, staring intently at Ranma’s shoulder for some reason.

“I, ah… I don’t think I know. A martial artist, a teacher, a student… beyond that, I don’t know.” Ranma answered honestly. “I hope that’s enough to help with your like. Strategizing.”

Kotone smiled and gave Ranma a small hug. “We’ll find out, I guess.”

Ranma said goodbye to Nabiki’s friends and went to bed themself, mind on the challenge of the school day ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry yall I got real attached to Kotone, I know she's very over-flirty but i'm just in love with the idea of our favourite genderfluid fluid attractor getting together with another chaos gremlin.


	6. Ono and Hibiki

Akane was pleasantly surprised when the last remnants of the morning molester mob formally apologized the next monday, under the watchful eye of three harsh looking local mothers.

She bit her cheek to avoid smiling as she heard them being publicly kicked off their various sports teams, but it was easy to smother the inner grin the moment the ringleader of the band of buffoons stepped out from behind his favourite tree.

"Finally, my dear Akane, we find ourselves free of the boors who dared to sully my challenge with their useless and unhonourable tactics." Kuno began, pointedly ignoring the glares from the adults who stopped their exit from the schoolyard.

"Upperclassman. Will you do the smart thing and stop too?" Akane's voice was as flat as her mood.

"The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High will never do the smart thing!" Kuno declared dramatically. Akane swore she heard Kikuko giving a cheer from their usual perch on the second floor balcony.

"Let's get you knocked out so I can get to class, then." Akane threw her bookbag high into the air and advanced on Kuno, trying to keep calm despite the ever present bubbling anger at the hell her past few months had been.

Block bokken. Punch, grin at the fact his dodge is less far than normal, leg sweep, punch up at his leaping overhead, follow through with grab by the neck and driving him into the ground.

"You lose again. I have class." Akane took the bokken from Kuno's stunned hand and used it to catch the falling bookbag, sliding the bag's handle down past the bokken's hand guard and into her waiting hand before dropping the weapon and walking into the school.

Ranma was waiting by the far doors, paying out bets on Nabiki's behalf with a signed note from Ryonami’s timekeeping. Akane grinned at her future brother-in-law as she started the other daily ritual of shredding the insincere love notes.

The first half of the day was calm and full of note taking for the dojo's inhabitants, and Akane waved Ranma off to the nurse’s office for gym. She kept to the promise to keep him safe from ridicule at school, explaining the shyness to her classmates as the speedier version of Ranma jogged up to join the girls for baseball.

Ranma was glancing between the boys' activity - gymnastics - and asking Sayuri how frequently gym activities rotated around when Akane shouted for him to pay attention to today's game.

A bad hit spiralled out from her bat and impacted into one of the boys right on the forehead, causing a beeline for the nurse soon after.

  


* * *

  


Ranma was helping to carry the weight of the semiconscious Daisuke, with his friend Hiroshi on the other shoulder, as they tried to explain the dazed boy's luck.

"I'm just saying, if you'd been watching clouds but sitting up, you might have maybe not survived even a regular hit there." Ranma said strongly. "Let alone one from a martial artist in training, accident or not."

Hiroshi nodded at that. "I knew you were staying with Akane but didn't know you were into martial arts too." The long-haired girl was looking down at the ground as she led the way to Doc Tofu’s.

Ranma shrugged with her free arm. "It's a bit of a hobby." A snort came from Akane. "Hah, made you feel better." A gentle slug to the shoulder was her answer.

"It might be safer to take my sister up on her side business." Akane murmured to Hiroshi. "If he was watching who I think he was." Ranma glanced at the blushing boy, then schooled their face into a carefully neutral mask.

Nabiki had made a good argument for the photo shoots but it still felt a bit uncomfortable for Ranma knowing the training would be observed, unobtrusive shots aside. She could probably negotiate with his father to find days that would go unrecorded for Anything Goes secrets, and they trusted their fiancée enough for that.

Hiroshi stumbled a bit at the sight of Genma sweeping the front yard of the doctor’s office, before Ranma remembered the nature of his job - a mascot slash assistant. "Er, hi Pops. Can you get Daisuke signed up for an appointment quickly?"

Genma growfed and went inside, Ranma and Akane doing a quick game of rock, paper, scissors before the Tendo daughter gave the brief explanation of the Spring of Drowned Panda. Hiroshi seemed to nod in understanding as the group wandered in to follow the furred Saotome dressed in oversized scrubs.

Daisuke was swiftly seen to, a cream rubbed over the baseball indentation in his forehead and a thick piece of gauze spread over it. Ranma watched their father’s antics in the background as a phonecall came through, the panda forgetting his form before Akane answered the phone.

"... alright, see you soon." Akane sounded strangely dejected as she hung up, and her bustle to leave the examination room confused Ranma.

"Dai's resting, why are you in such a hurry?"

"The doctor has… someone he likes." Akane said in a whisper as she dragged them into the waiting room. "She's coming here and he's not safe to be around."

Ranma sensed the waiting room emptying rapidly at those words, the receptionist being the only person sticking around. "Can we put Dai on the bench out here then?"

Akane nodded and helped Ranma and Hiroshi drag the unconscious boy to the front, before Ranma went back in to the examination room to warn Genma.

The sound of the door opening behind Ranma and a strong hand grasping the back of his neck had them freezing in place. "Doctor?"

Tofu laughed frantically as he twisted Ranma’s head to one side, the martial artist's vision stuck at a 90 degree angle. Genma looked shocked to be standing on the wall suddenly, and Ranma was already starting to feel a headache coming on as she turned to see who affected the doctor so badly.

Kasumi was busy placing a medical textbook down on Tofu’s desk, before she flashed Ranma a wry smile. A small delivery of cookies soon turned into a tablecloth bandana, a plate with a massive bite taken out of it, and two cookies being used as a stethoscope as Ono asked their father how long he'd been a panda.

Kasumi gently took Ranma by the shoulder and called out a goodbye before exiting the examination room, tilting her own head to match Ranma’s. "I'm terribly sorry, I had thought everyone was away from him this time of day."

Ranma tried to shrug as she looked Kasumi in the eye, their matched head position letting him see the slight pain in her smile. "At least me and Pops can handle it." Kasumi straightened her head out and sighed.

"Everyone I've spoken to say he's as skilled as I remember from when I was a child, but…" Ranma patted awkwardly at Kasumi’s elbow as the teenagers returned to the other injured member of their group.

Akane looked sadly at her sister as the dojo residents said goodbye to Hiroshi and Daisuke. "He should probably be back to accepting patients in ten minutes, in case you need to use pressure points to wake him up." She cautioned as they left.

The walk back to the dojo was quiet and a strange perspective for Ranma. Kasumi sighed heavily again. "I wish he wasn't so knowledgeable."

Akane murmured something in response, and Ranma waved a hand in front of their face. "What sort of stuff does he know?"

"Expert martial artist. Knows a lot about pressure points." Akane said curtly. Kasumi in the bottom peripheral of Ranma's vision frowned.

"Doesn't know how to be professional and distant." Kasumi rebuked. "Despite his skills I don't think he's a very good doctor."

Ranma and Akane both turned to face Kasumi as they walked onwards, the eldest of the trio leading the rest of the way home in a pensive silence.

  


* * *

  


Ryonami saw it first - a stranger with an overfull backpack staring at the gates to the school. Kotone followed her gaze and was soon rapidly hissing. “Big one coming. Analyse.”

Ryonami grabbed her notebook out and starting noting what she could about the fighter’s build and any fighting moves that they might display. This was Nerima, that any stranger would be a fighter was a given.

Kikuko’s job was to actually run the numbers and figure out odds, so on the initial analysis run of any unknown she mostly spent her time gauging any revelations from Ryonami’s notes on her own factsheet, which Nabiki converted into a proper betting pool and used her reputation to get bets floating around the school.

Kikuko, Kotone and Nabiki went downstairs at a rush to get any early bets, the stranger’s overwhelming sense of anger palpable from the doorway. Ryonami watched Nabiki quickly round up the rich and gullible members of the student body before her focus went back to the stranger, who made a wild leap into the air following one student pointing him in a random direction.

Ryonami gaped as the stranger leapt into the air and shouted intentions to get revenge on her sensei. Ranma flipped back from the umbrella suddenly impacting the ground, and some strange drama seemed to be going down between the two - she’d get the details from Nabiki later - which was pausing the fight.

She noted down that the umbrella was heavy and while the drama was continuing to unfold before running to join her friends for up close analysis.

She came out from the entrance hall just in time to hear the revelation that this stranger - she’d missed the name - had been struggling to find a duel for four days. She got back to focusing on the fight as Ranma leapt up over a sideways slash, her dress flaring out beneath her.

Her estimation on the weight of the umbrella decreased when she saw it flung out with sharp edges darting against the gashes in the backs of where a couple of her classmates had not quite managed to get out of the way of the strange weapon. Ranma’s dress rustled as she leaned out of the path of the weapon with minimal effort expended.

“I shall destroy your happiness!” The stranger yelled, causing a hush to go over the schoolyard.  


Ranma slowly moved to stand in front of Ryonami and her friends. “Nobody hurts my friends.”

The stranger gave a feral grin, showing off a fang. “Then I’ll have to go through you.”

The school bell interrupted them and Ranma seemed fit to stay with her arms and legs spread, before Nabiki approached and grabbed her shoulder. “Ryoga, can this wait until after school? There’s a nice café just over the way.” She pointed, and when the boy turned around she hurried her friends into the school.

  


* * *

  


It didn’t make sense.

Why didn’t Ranma know he was coming? Ryoga had triple checked the address to the Tendo Dojo and mailed the challenge letter out well ahead of his arrival, but their whole torrid past was broadcast to the whole school.

Ryoga had always sworn to himself to be more honourable than that thieving bastard, he mused as he sipped at a soda. He was intently watching the school across the way, waiting for school to let out.

When the final bell of the day rang out, Ryoga was… somewhat surprised to see that the students leaving the school first were far younger than the ones watching that morning’s fight.

In fact, it seemed that by the time students stopped filtering out of the elementary school, that his quarry had somehow evaded him.

  


* * *

  


“Wait, you mean he just. Wandered off?” Nabiki sighed. “Great, I’ll have to take bets on when he’ll manage to get back for the fight too.”

Kotone glanced about. “I have no idea when he’ll show up again. Sorry. Probably run even odds if he took 4 days to miss the first duel…”

Nabiki gathered the information her friends had put together and went to tell her punters the bad news. As much as the students at Furinkan enjoyed a bit of chaos, waiting around over multiple nights just in case Ryoga showed up again wouldn’t be worthwhile.

“So you really have no idea what you did to piss him off?” Nabiki asked through the nurse’s door.

Their response was muffled somewhat from Ranma getting changed. “If it’s not the bread, and it’s not being late to the duel,” They opened the door and waved goodbye to the nurse, before falling into step with Nabiki. “Then you can search me cuz I’m flat outta ideas.”

Nabiki sighed and watched her friends wander off as she and Ranma went back home. Ranma let out a small laugh when Kasumi gave them a letter from Ryoga - a note of challenge for the day before as it turned out.

“With his luck, he’ll make it back to school next week.” Nabiki nodded, figuring it wasn’t worth adjusting the odds until the next day with that tip.

Akane stretched out from where she’d been watching some TV. “Try not to lose too much of your ‘I’m just a regular schoolgirl’ act with the match, Ranma.”

“If they can put up with you and Ryonami without too much stress, I’ll be fine.” They fired back, poking their tongue out. “You guys can keep me warmed up until he manages to show back up, so I’ll be doing nightly training starting tomorrow.”


	7. Blades at the Zoo

Ryoga had been struggling through the various climates of Nerima since he had last left the café that helpful girl pointed out to him. No matter how many schools he staked out none of them seemed to contain the blonde haired girl that ruined his life.

Ryoga was finding it hard to keep his eyes on where he was going, frustrated with Ranma for being happy and conflicted - he had vowed to destroy her happiness, but didn't want to hurt any noncombatants.

A soccer ball approaching at speed at eye level snapped Ryoga's thoughts to the present even as his head snapped back. His body landed on his backpack and he let himself watch the clouds as words from the soccer players washed over him.

"Isn't that the guy who assaulted Ranma last week?"

Ryoga jumped to his feet and explained the letter of challenge, infuriated that the effort he went to to track the elder Saotome's postcard was being trivialized.

He accepted the apology and began munching on some walnuts as he waited for school to finish.

For some reason it seemed like everyone in the school except Ranma started to make their way to the soccer field, the girl who directed him to the café the other week wandering about with a bullhorn and taking bets on his fight. Ryoga felt flattered that she was pressuring Ranma to show up, despite being part of the happiness the now-girl claimed.

Speaking of the devil, Saotome wandered onto the field with her school dress pinned up to a far shorter length, the tall teen's silk pants preserving her secrets. Ryoga grinned ferally and began the fight, his focus narrowing to his opponent.

Ranma was running her mouth about not knowing what she’d done while not even trying to fight back, dodging past the heavy swings of his battle umbrella. Ryoga tired of Ranma’s bullshit and soon pulled off the second weapon in his arsenal, flinging the umbrella at his foe to distract her.

He darted forward and quickly slipped the handcuff he'd designed for this fight onto her wrist, tethering her to himself. Ryoga was confused by the catcalls in the watching audience. He began showing off the long chain's true purpose, dragging the speedy opponent nicely into close reach.

As Ranma continued to not take the fight seriously, Ryoga began flinging quick jabs at her face. Thankfully a student on the sidelines called out "Sensei! Don't let him touch you, he's monstrously strong!"

Ryoga took advantage of the distraction and almost hit Ranma, the pressure from his passing hand enough to open a cut on the girl's cheek. Ranma’s eyes hardened as she finally started taking the fight seriously.

Ryoga matched his nemesis kick for kick, punch for punch, until one punch he was sure would hit instead whiffed over Ranma's head as she dropped to the ground - before tugging Ryoga further off balance and tangling him up in his own limbs.

Ryoga felt a weight settle on his back as he balanced himself with one arm, growling to himself as Ranma dared to mock him by asking in front of the crowd for Ryoga to declare his greatest weakness.

That injustice was enough to get Ryoga to push off the ground with a roar of rage, flinging Ranma into the air with him, kicking at her as they ascended. The infuriating coward tugged Ryoga into her own kick using Ryoga's handcuff chain, sending him crashing back down onto the soccer field.

Ranma rolled under Ryoga and kicked him into the air, the chain connecting them snapping under the pressure as he impacted amidst the scattering students. Ranma leapt after her downed opponent and had to quickly dart away as Ryoga kicked up in her face.

Ryoga saw his umbrella lying to the side and rolled over quickly to get it, opening it as a shield against Ranma’s kick against his face. He stepped back, trying to get back to the middle of the soccer field, leaping over the fence that had managed to get in his way.

The path back to the soccer field was convoluted and twisted, and the sound of Ranma running on the fences behind him was joined by a handful of more feet. Ryoga spun on the spot and saw a few people Ranma defended the other week including the girl who gave directions to the café.

Ranma stood in a loose stance as Ryoga eyed her allies warily. “What do you want?”

“To find out why you’re trying to kill my fiancé for one thing.” Café girl said. The novice martial artist of the group chimed in as well. “Or at least why you want to beat them into a pulp.”

Ryoga glanced at Ranma and back to the other girls. “... I followed Ranma Saotome after he ran out on our duel.” Ranma narrowed her eyes at that.

“We already covered that the other day. You said it’s not the leftover bread, it’s not skipping out on the fight. What did I do to you?”

Ryoga growled and grabbed hold of a nearby telephone pole, suplexing it and trying to flatten Ranma with it. “You led me to China!”

Ranma started to retreat, leading Ryoga’s crazed swings away from the civilians which he was more than happy to oblige. The shattered end of the pole slashed at the happy-go-lucky thief’s chest, not hitting at her vitals but slashing through her dress and…

“That was my first bra you bastard!” Ranma said, a hand over her chest barely concealing a black shape spilling from her damaged red bra.

Ryoga stared in shock as Ranma’s kick obliterated the pole in his hands, his opponent focusing on kicks and sweeps with her right arm as her left stayed protecting her modesty. Ryoga kept backing up from the berserker, panicking as he felt a water fountain at his back.

Ranma’s kick atomized the edge of the water fountain as Ryoga darted out of the way, opening his umbrella again and protecting himself from any errant water droplets as the destroyed fountain sprayed into the air.

Ranma leapt out from the fountain, her pants bunched up at the base of her legs now that they were drenched. His eyes narrowed at his opponent as she entered her ready stance again. Ryoga glanced at the water pooling around Ranma’s feet and hissed out a word. “Jusenkyo.”

  


* * *

  


Nabiki glanced at Ryoga after that little revelation, the directionally-challenged challenger pulling a ludicrous number of bandanas free from his forehead, somehow turning them ramrod stiff and flinging them at-

Nabiki quickly hit the ground and yelled out for the students around her to do so as well as one of the bandanarangs flew way too close to her head for comfort. “If you aren’t a martial artist, eat pavement!” Kikuko re-emphasised as she kept taking candid shots of the fight to confirm the victor.

Ryonami and Akane were punching the razor-sharp implements out of the air that threatened to get too close to the watching students as the chaos of the fight caused an exodus of zoo animals to the streets of Nerima. Nabiki wondered if it was worth taking evidence for insurance agents or blackmailing either Ryoga or the zoo later, and pulled out her own camera to start taking notes.

The fighters faced down, punches and kicks being matched with blocks and dodges while more bandanas blasting through the air gave the zoo’s foliage buzzcuts and cut a few more locks off cages. Akane and Ryonami bellowed at an approaching lion, scaring it back into its cage.

Nabiki yelped nervously as Akane broke from the defensive stance to dodge her way over to the lion’s den, bending one of the still-rigid bandanas she’d scooped off the floor around the cage door, locking the dangerous predators away from the regular students.

Ryoga’s umbrella lunged at Ranma’s face, and they kicked it out of his grip into the air before catching it with one hand. They flipped it open and started using it to bat more bandanas out of the air. “Give it up, Ryoga, we can talk this out in private somewhere.”

The man facing off her fiancé roared in anger and whipped his belt off, the same strange magic turning it into a sharp sword. Ranma bounced the umbrella against it, using it as a shield and defending the students.

A lunge of the belt poked right through the paper umbrella, Ranma spinning it to tug the weapon out of Ryoga’s hands and into the inside of the umbrella. They impaled it into the ground beside them and put their fists up again. “Stop this already! People could get hurt!”

“Only if their name is Ranma Saotome!” Ryoga bellowed, lunging his hands towards Nabiki’s fiancé. Nabiki winced at the thought that Ryoga might actually win the bout on pure, pointless anger. Then the nascent betting pool would be over before it had even started. And she’d have to pay out from her last check at Occhan’s.

Akane’s short fuse ran out as she ran into the melee, kicking at the back of Ryoga’s knee. “Leave my sensei alone! This has gone on long enough!”

The boy kicked back at Nabiki’s sister without turning his face from Ranma. “This is a fight between the two of us.”

“Then why have you gone and destroyed the whole goddamned zoo!” Akane yelled back, gaining Ryoga’s attention. “Do you hate animals or something?”

Nabiki had been watching Ranma who was getting ready to attack, but saw their eyes widen at that line. The wig-wearing martial artist quickly moved up to Ryoga and wrapped their arms around him… in a hug.

“I’m so sorry!”

  


* * *

  


Ryoga was stunned as the annoying student behind him stopped her assault, turning to share a shocked look with the girl that called his foe a teacher.

Ranma sobbed into Ryoga’s shoulder for a short while, whispering apologies into his ear. The fist he had begun to clench weakened suddenly as two apologies filtered through to his brain. “I’m sorry you followed us to Jusenkyo. I’m sorry you’ve lost your humanity.”

Ryoga slowly raised his hands and patted the crying girl on the back, eyes roaming for anyone who might have heard the confession. Nobody seemed to have heard, and the students being defended by Ranma’s other apprentice seemed to be muttering in shock.

The only person who wasn’t looking surprised was the smug girl who directed Ryoga to the café, who was thumbing through a small black book.

“So, I don’t think anyone bet the fight would end in a hug, hmmmm…” She said, before students all around her started to complain. At least now Ryoga had her name - Nabiki. “None of you bet on Akane throwing the last hit, either.” Groans from all the students who had been rallying counterarguments filled the air, as Ranma and Akane started to lead Ryoga away from the zoo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excuse the lateness of this update, it's still monday here thankfully...
> 
> Three-day migraines aren't fun!
> 
> So since I plan on eventually having a costume update for most of the teens, do you guys have a preference for how Akane should look for her own sake? No razor-sharp haircut here with how she's been trained, plus with how Ranma hasn't been antagonizing her.


	8. Truth or get spare!

Ranma and Akane led the directionally challenged warrior to the Tendo dojo, Ranma looking over the damage on the battle umbrella as her other hand kept his boobs decent.

Akane brushed her long hair back and tucked the bundle of extra bandanas under her arm tighter against her side. "Kasumi can probably get those stitched up fairly quickly." Akane said, smiling back as Ranma’s face split into a wide grin.

Ryoga trailing behind by a small chain of bandanas tied to the handle of his umbrella. Ranma would turn around and give minor adjustments when they felt his old friend and fellow victim start to drift away.

"When did you last have a home-cooked meal, man?" Ranma asked at one point when she was briefly walking backwards. Ryoga's face was harsh and Ranma nodded to themself, stepping in close to the boy who had been beating the stuffing out of them minutes before. Ranma awkwardly gave Ryoga a pat on the shoulder. "Been there. I'll give up a couple servings for you."

Akane glanced back in Ranma’s direction as they started walking forward again. "I'm sure your fiancée will be over the moon at the bets she won."

Ryoga cleared his throat. "If you're a girl now, how can you have a fiancée?"

Ranma stiffened slightly and then sighed. "Thanks for keeping up the charade, but I'm less a girl and more a… I don’t mind." A shrug. "As long as I can choose. The springs made some things a bit clearer, but it's still a confusing feeling."

Ryoga sighed despondently. "You always were lucky, getting a curse you don't mind."

Akane snorted a bit at their side. "If you think Ranma’s alright with his curse, wait til you see Genma. Takes to it like a duck to water."

  


* * *

  


Genma sneezed into the crook of the scrubs he was wearing at the breakroom of the Ono clinic, before continuing to explain to the frazzled zookeeper about his curse. The reports of a wild panda corralling zoo escapees back to their enclosures would subsequently end up on the nightly Nerima news, once Genma managed to get the idea of reward money firmly incepted in the zoo's representative.

  


* * *

  


Kasumi was lounging on her bed, making her way through a fantasy novel when she heard the door open and a cry of greeting from three voices. Ranma was audible instructing a guest to wait where they were as Kasumi slid a ribbon into her book and started to trek downstairs.

Ranma passed her on the stairs and gave a quick bow, which Kasumi returned before noticing the rip on the girl's uniform. "Oh dear, what happened?"

"Ryoga showed up, we fought, and in the process my bra was a casualty." Ranma succinctly explained. "If you'd be so kind as to repair it, I'll work on fixing the uniform. Oh, and Ryoga's here too, found out what the revenge is for and it's pretty justified."

Kasumi nodded. "I'll pick it up from your room later, thank you. I'll go greet Mr. Hibiki then." She smiled brightly, before resuming her travel to go greet Ryoga.

The martial artist looked a bit lost in thought as she approached, Akane having wandered off to the dojo to work out some more. Kasumi gave a small bow and welcomed Ryoga to her home.

“Thank you for having me, miss Tendo, even after all the trouble I’ve caused.” Ryoga said politely, causing Kasumi to smile.

“Oh, you had Ranma, Akane and Ryonami quite excited, I think they don’t get to go all out all that often. It was no trouble at all.” She paused, thought, then continued. “Well, it might be trouble if you were to undress one of the girls at school. Try not to do whatever caused those cuts again, maybe?”

Ryoga blushed. “Er, I would never… on purpose, at least.” He glanced at the ground. “I was trying to kill Ranma, not expose them.”

Kasumi clicked her tongue at that. “Perhaps whatever grievance Ranma committed against you was extreme, but you still have your life. Don’t become a killer.” The martial artist shrunk into himself, and Kasumi felt that her point was made.

“Nabiki mentioned that you have problems with directions, does that happen indoors too?” Kasumi asked after a moment to ensure it was sunk in. When Ryoga blushed deeply, she gave a small smile and took his shoulder, steering him ahead of her into the kitchen.

“It didn’t used to, but as I’ve got older things have gotten more and more… labyrinthine.” Ryoga admitted as he aided Kasumi with preparing dinner for the night, the majority of his efforts being directed into ingredient preparation.

“That must be terrible when you have to go to the bathroom.” Ryoga shrugged, apparently not wanting to discuss it. Kasumi simply let herself fall into the zone and cook, not noticing when the presence in the kitchen beside her suddenly disappeared.

She did notice however when a shuffling noise and a creaking cabinet drew her attention. “Oh, Ryoga, are you looking for the…” She drifted off when she looked around and found the lost boy missing, and the cutlery he had been using sitting in the sink. She shrugged and got back to preparing dinner. “Poor boy, I hope he isn’t too hungry wherever he ends up.”

  


* * *

  


Nabiki was happily making her way home after a late visit to the bank, the intervention of her sister having made her quite a lot of money which now sat in the family account.

A splash of yellow and black caught her eye as she walked and she slowed, wondering if one of Ryoga’s projectiles had gotten stuck in place. But it was moving through her vision… Attached to a small piglet. In her sister’s arms.

And the zoo didn’t have piglets get loose in the escape.

Nabiki grinned ferally and was soon stepping alongside Akane. “Who is this?”

“I found this cute little piggy wandering in the house. I think I might take it as a pet.”

The piglet looked quite relaxed for being in the arms of a large predator. Nabiki decided to test something. “Maybe we could have pork tonight.” When the piglet started to strain in her sister’s vice grip, Nabiki nodded to herself before clarifying that she was joking.

Akane frowned at her. “It wasn’t very funny, you know.”

“Mmm, it probably was in poor taste.” Nabiki murmured, keeping an eye on the piglet. “Tell you what, I’ll take care of the little guy while you go see if Ranma’s OK after the fight.”

Akane sighed and agreed. “Don’t be mean to my pet!” She snapped as she shoved the suspect into Nabiki’s arms and stormed off, the sounds of some serious stress relief going down in the dojo soon after.

Nabiki wandered up to her room and locked the door, putting the piglet on her bed and beginning to take off her shirt. The beast quickly turned to face the pillows, and Nabiki smiled triumphantly.

“So, Ryoga. A piglet.” It turned back around in shock, to see that Nabiki hadn’t undressed after all. “I have a proposition for you. Nod if you have clothes stashed away in the house somewhere.”

  


* * *

  


Kasumi found herself a bit surprised when Nabiki entered the kitchen and didn’t go straight for the mugs. Instead, she opened one of the lesser-used cabinets and… for some reason took out a set of clothes from a large backpack that was in there. “... Nabiki?”

“You might have an explanation later.” She replied cryptically as she gathered a glass full of hot water, then left with her little hoard.

Kasumi glanced back and forth before shrugging and returning to dinner, hoping that her father would remember to bring home the soda she’d asked him to when he left for the council.

  


* * *

  


Nabiki laid out Ryoga’s clothes on the ground and placed the glass atop it, nodding to the piglet before leaving her room and shutting the door. The sound of shifting cloth came from behind her and she knocked a moment after the sounds stopped, entering once she heard Ryoga softly thank her.

“Right then, we need to have a talk. Grab a seat by the desk, please.” She said to the dressed martial artist who was wiping down the water stain on his shirt. She shut the door and sat on the bed.

“How did you know?” Ryoga blurted out once the door was shut.

“You knew why Ranma was smaller with a bit of water. You dodged getting splashed yourself. I saw Ranma’s face when Akane mentioned animals. And your bandana was the big giveaway. None of the rest have stopped being rigid yet.” She said as she looked levelly at the boy in front of her.

He sighed and rested his head on the desk. “So what’s this, blackmail?”

“Of a sort, depending on what you want.” She lazily kicked her legs behind her as she spun on the bed to lay on her front. “The way I see it, you have three options. First, you ‘run away’ and Akane is briefly heartbroken by the loss of her new pet, and I keep your secret. Second, you live as her pet and I keep a close eye on you, revealing to her the truth the moment you act perverted and shatter her opinion on boys forever.” Seeing his face pale at that, she nodded. “Or lastly you could come with me, explain your curse to Akane, and get room and board and a lift to school.”

“I don’t… think the first option would work. With my problems with directions I could show up at any moment. Probably more if I’m trying to avoid the dojo.” Nabiki nodded, agreeing with his logic.

“So, do you poison her thoughts on boys further than the perverts at school already have, or will you join Ranma in being honest about your curse from the beginning?” She offered.

Ryoga gulped and looked about Nabiki’s room for salvation.

There wasn’t any.

  


* * *

  


Akane dusted her hands off and dropped more rubble onto the pile of post-workout garbage. She was proud of herself for how little she’d needed to use this form of stress relief lately - having others to train with and the perverts at school laying off had been quite helpful.

“Ranma! You better not be in the bath!” She yelled out as she wandered into the house, before being startled by Ryoga. “Oh, you’re still here?”

He blushed in response and nodded. “Ah, yes, I had thought I should leave but your… Nabiki convinced me otherwise.”

Akane caught sight of her sister keeping an eye on the martial artist, leaning up against a counter in the kitchen. “Is she making you pay for the damages to the zoo?”

Ryoga shook his head as Nabiki snorted. “No, the insurance agency paid up when I showed the evidence I had of the fight. We have free tickets for six months of visits once renovations are done, too.”

Akane grinned at the thriftiness of her sister, before turning to look at Ryoga. “So what did she convince you to do?”

He took a deep breath, before blurting out in a rush “I have a curse!”

“... Your bad sense of direction is a curse? Like Genma’s?”

“Er, no, I mean… Nabiki, help?”

Nabiki sighed and moved to stand beside her sister. “What colour was your new pet wearing as a neckerchief, Akane?”

Akane slowly thought on that, as Ryoga got more and more flustered. He pointed wordlessly at his bandana, making Akane tap a fist into her hand. “Oh! Is the piglet yours? You shouldn’t let it roam about like that.”

“Er, no… Akane… I am the piglet.” Ryoga said with a deep blush. “Jusenkyo curse, not any other kind. I don’t think.”

“... But you’re so small!” She said, confused.

“And Genma gains twice his weight and half of his height again, what’s your point?” Nabiki said. “It’s magic, it doesn’t have to make sense.”

Akane held up a hand as she tried to think, pacing back and forth before she spun on her sister. “What’s your angle?”

Nabiki grinned. “Getting Ranma into my room.”

“... what.” Akane blinked.

“If we get Daddy to agree to let you have a ‘pet’ in your room, then we reveal it to be a boy, maybe when he’s having a bath, I can argue for having my… well, fiancé in the same room as me.” Ryoga had a thick blush on his face.

“You… made Ryoga admit to this to sleep with Ranma?!” Akane barely registered the sound of a plate breaking in the kitchen, or someone falling down the stairs.

“No! They’re not ready for that yet!” Nabiki was quick to reply. “I just want them to have a place to themself, away from their dad. I don’t mind putting up sheets in my room or something, if they’re that shy.”

Kasumi stepped out of the kitchen and gave Ryoga a small smile. “So I should have warned you the water heater was acting up, then?” When Ryoga nodded mutely, she turned to Akane. “If you and your friend set up a bed after the reveal, and a cat bed for beforehand, I don’t see a problem.”

Akane spluttered. “What’s to stop him acting like one of those perverts at school?”

Nabiki waved a hand dismissively. “When he thought I thought he was a pig he turned away and blew his cover when I was starting to get changed.” Akane couldn’t help but notice Nabiki was still in her school uniform. “And that was before he knew that I knew. You’ll be good, right Ryo-kun?”

Ryoga nodded, but Akane sighed. “Well, if we want to go with the ‘cute pet’ route we should probably call your cursed form Ryo-chan.” Nabiki smiled at a plan coming together.

Ranma walked into the room in the dress he first came to the house in, rubbing his currently-male butt. “Oww, I fell down the stairs… What was that I heard about a ah… cat… bed?” He looked sheepishly at Nabiki.

Ryoga cleared his throat. “Ah, Nabiki found out what my curse was.” Ranma looked panicked at that. “Oh god, don’t tell me, it’s one of those demons.”

“Er… It’s a pig, not a demon.” Ryoga said, confused. “And you better not use it against me in a fight!”

Ranma nodded solidly. “Since it was my fault you got cursed in the first place, of course.” He looked a lot more relaxed to Akane’s eye now.


	9. Shop 'til she drops!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added a scene to better explain what happened to Mrs Occhan so go back to chapter 4 if you'd like to check that out.

Soun Tendo had just finished with a rough day at the council office, having to, as always, defend the vast amounts of violence coming from his district. He could only pass the buck onto the demons of Juuban so many times before his co-worker would start to get nasty in retaliation.

He shuddered at the thought of the last time a demon hunter had visited the dojo, bumping into the back of Genma's cursed form outside the local clinic.

"Oh, Saotome, you still have work?" A nod. "Could you pick up some baby pickles on the way home? And see if that game store has any new two player games." Soun slipped a wad of bills into the high waistband of the panda's pants, the elastic of the scrubs and his rotund form ensuring the money would disappear.

Genma nodded and Soun gave the panda a brief hug before resuming his walk home. His eldest had been growing ever more frustrated at the way he and his partner in crime would play Shogi, not being a fan of their mutually agreed upon cheating. He hoped new games would add the spice back to their friendship that had faded with the death of their own personal demon.

Soun whistled a happy tune as he got back to the dojo, patting the small sapling growing in a corner of the backyard. It looked sickly, but considering what it was planted over that wasn't much of a surprise.

"Hello Father!" Kasumi cried from the lounge where she was reading a book on pet care. It seemed like everyone was enjoying the evening around each others' presence, Nabiki reading more manga with her feet on Ranma's lap, the… child spending their time working on homework, his last daughter cuddling a…

"Akane? Is that a piglet?" Soun asked as he sat down opposite his youngest.

Akane nodded, scratching at its neck as it made cute little snuffling noises. "Ryo-chan was wandering about in the cold and we decided to take them in." His sweet daughter giving the piglet a small cuddle and a kiss on the forehead brought a tear to his eye.

"Father, please, we aren't jumping into this half-cocked." Kasumi gently chided as Soun forced himself back to a stoic mask. The piglet seemed a little shocked, and Ranma looked mildly put out to suddenly be in 'daughter' form again. "And you really should try to rehydrate more, you're going to end up crying yourself to sleep one of these days."

Soun chuckled slightly as he went to the kitchen to follow her advice, sipping at a refreshing glass of chilled water. "I'm sorry dear, I'm just so proud to see you girls growing up." He went to go have a soak and unwind before Genma got back, wondering if it was worth having alcohol tonight. Probably not if he wanted to remember the rules of whatever game Genma picked up…

  


* * *

  


Ryoga gently hopped off Akane’s lap, giving a nod to the out-of-scale human and moving to go look at Ranma’s homework, wanting to see what sort of quality of work the school expected. One benefit to being in this form was his hearing and smell were vastly improved - partly what surprised him about Soun’s tears was the odd sensation of smelling Ranma change form under their soap and deodorant.

However, as Ranma pulled him back away from the homework to rest atop their head, he really couldn’t see for shit. Ryoga jumped onto Nabiki’s head and gave the signal they’d discussed of tapping his hooves lightly in a pattern to ask her to start playing twenty questions.

Nabiki glanced about for her father then placed Ryoga on the lounge room floor, murmuring questions softly. “Bathroom?” Shake head. “Change back?” A pause, then a shrug. “Bored?” A slow nod. “Entertainment?” Shake. “Schoolwork?” A nod. She stood up and carried the piglet at her hip to the hidden pack in the kitchen. As she rooted through his pack he stayed still until she grabbed the book he wanted to read, at which point she glanced down for a confirming nod.

She spread the book out on the couch in front of her and posed her manga over it, making it look like the schoolbook was something she got bored of should Soun or Genma or a guest arrive. Ryoga gave a snort of thanks then settled down to do some thinking.

It was good to be in the company of those who knew and wouldn’t let him get eaten. He gave an involuntary shudder as he thought of the panda that tried to kill him, and that asshole of a Jusenkyo guide cracking jokes about his humanity before throwing him into a boiling pot.

  


* * *

  


Kasumi finished researching the dietary requirements of a pig and, slightly ill, put the book aside to take back to the library later. She was glad they could share some of the tastier vegetables and small amounts of meat, as long as it was cooked, and hard boiled eggs would be a nice treat. Pigs have so many taste buds!

A shudder passed through her as she thought of all the casual comments in the book talking about eating privately owned pigs, and she wondered if she could get Akane to bring a list of the spices she usually used at home to Tofu to see if they would be useful for Ryo-chan - or, now that she thought of it, for Tofu’s assistant when in animal form.

A frown passed across her face as she wandered into the kitchen, thinking of the unprofessional doctor. Maybe Nabiki could bring up therapy and ask who his therapist was… it might hint to him at the inappropriate nature of his crush. The sooner that man found someone his own age to date, the better.

“Oh, what I would give to have that girl able to boil water safely…” Kasumi murmured quietly to herself as she prepared to boil a trio of unsalted eggs for their newest house-guest, alongside the rice of the humans’ meal for the night. Genma wandered in with a jar of pickles in his thankfully human hands, and Kasumi thanked him and returned to the task at hand. Thankfully the supply of bamboo she’d picked up could stay in the crisper tonight.

Kasumi idly wondered if any other households in Nerima had to focus on tastes of fussy animals.

  


* * *

  


Other than a mild freakout from Genma of all people when Nabiki mentioned picking up the cat bed and sounds of the two fathers rambunctiously enjoying their new board game filling the sounds of the empty afternoons, the rest of the week passed quietly.

  


* * *

  


Nabiki and Ranma wandered down to do a bit of shopping after school one afternoon, Ranma wanting to get a few more sports bras so they could properly retire the one Kasumi had repaired. And Nabiki wanted to spend a bit of Kuno’s pervert money on something nice for her fiancé.

The two had made brief stops into boutiques, Nabiki standing guard as Ranma got properly sized - and, embarrassingly for the pair, a visit to get appropriately sized padding from an adult store.

Nabiki gave Ranma a smile as they tried on a longer dress, sized for their birth form. She handed them a small bottle of water to test how quickly they could change out the pads when getting changed, murmuring appreciatively at how the hem of the dress just barely brushed the ground in their cursed form. “You look lovely, and it covers the ah… battle damage.”

Ranma gave a wry smile and nodded, the pair picking up some swimsuits for them soon afterwards. Ranma had stuck to a two-piece for the ‘private conversation’ outfit - they admitted they really didn’t mind sharing the bath with Nabiki occasionally. She smiled as they got a far more conservative suit for school wear.

“If we’re lucky we can get you into my room by the end of the month. And maybe if we dry clean her swimsuit Akane’ll take it back.” Ranma gave a shrug, unsure how often sisters would share outfits.

Nabiki looked through their finances and sighed. “Well, time to head home. We’re dry.” Ranma nodded, happy to have got what they had so far.

Nabiki let Ranma lead the way home, and carry the bulk of their purchases. But after a while, they changed direction and passed the bags over to Nabiki, a finger to their lips.

Nabiki watched with a small amount of awe as they lept atop a fencepost and squatted down to watch a confrontation between three bandaged figures and a tall girl still in her school uniform. It was one thing to hear tales of Jusenkyo and perching atop bamboo poles, another to see the high leaps in person.

Suddenly the girl pulled a gymnastics ribbon from her gym bag and began defending herself from the assault of her three attackers, but Nabiki started to wince in sympathy with the aggressors after the ribbon would not stop whipping at them.

And then it stopped. Because Ranma was over there. Ribbon held firmly in hand.

“You seem to be no ordinary girl.” The arch voice of the gymnast said as Ranma interposed their way between the battered and bandaged trio.

Ranma stood calmly and gave a nod in acknowledgement. “Good! Because I prefer not to treat girls…” The gymnast kicked up one of the scattered juggling pins into her hand and darted it at Ranma’s face. “With ordinary courtesy!”

Ranma ducked out of the way and kicked at the girl’s forward facing foot in the same moment, putting her off balance and causing her to make a handstand to move out of the way. She held herself with poise as she and Ranma faced off.

“You are very good… I’m the Black Rose of St Bacchus’ School for Girls. Kodachi the black rose.” She flicked a rose of the appropriate colour in Ranma’s direction before bounding away, laughter ringing out as she leapt over Nabiki’s head.

Ranma stood with the thorns stuck in her thumb, watching mutely as the mummified people started sobbing about their humiliation. As they started to pull their disguises off, Nabiki gave a gasp of recognition and began to walk around the perimeter of the empty lot, looking for a proper gate to enter.

  


* * *

  


Ranma and Nabiki deposited the rhythmic gymnastic team in Akane’s room and she went to make some phone calls. Ranma put their shopping into her room before returning to lounge at the edge of Akane’s doorway and listen to what they were proposing.

“Rhythmic gymnastic wrestling?” Akane asked. “You really think I’d be any good at that?”

“Please, Akane, you’re our only hope. Nobody else can get through Kodachi’s ambushes if we signed them up, and you have a dojo to train in!” Ranma smiled as the Anything Goes stubbornness went through his pupil, and she accepted to avenge the rest of the teams’ injuries.

  


* * *

  


Ryoga heard the sound of practicing in the dojo and, lacking anything better to do, wandered that way to watch the nightly sparring. For some reason his fake owner was in a leotard and practicing with the tools of his mothers’ trade. A snuffle was enough to draw both of the other teenagers’ attention as Akane called his pet name in greeting.

Ranma gave a peace sign as Akane gave the back of his neck a scratch. “You want to watch me train, huh?” Ryoga nodded and sat down in Ranma’s lap, enjoying the vast expanse of their school dress as he tried to focus his poor eyesight on his friend.

Ranma gave a quiet running commentary of Akane’s training methods as she apparently dropped juggling pins, tripped herself with the ribbon (though Ranma raised their voice to congratulate her on turning the tumble into a graceful landing) and rolled through a hoop - at which point Ryoga heard the plastic snap and let out a piggy little sigh. He tapped at Ranma’s legs then oinked in acknowledgement about wanting to change back.

Ranma took a change of clothes to the bath’s changing room and set him on the ground, Ryoga nodding at Ranma and sliding the door open with his nose. He was surprised to hear water bubbling in the room, and he oinked his way up into the bath.

As he shot up in size he saw the two men of the house sharing a glass of beer each in the tub, and awkwardly nodded to them both as they stared blankly at him, unfolding the bandana from his head and using it to hide his modesty.

“Ah, hello Mr Tendo, Mr Saotome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone else thought it was weird that Soun sees Ryoga change in canon and does jack fucking nothin' about it?
> 
> Do you think finding out that Genma was directly responsible for almost getting him eaten will give our Ryo-chan a new person to shout 'prepare to die' to?


	10. Kuno finally gets a rival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey yall sorry I didn't upload much this week, been a real bad one brainwise.
> 
> Hopefully today's update is enjoyable! Love yall!

Genma stared in shock at the pig-turned-boy. He remembered seeing him back at the springs, when Ranma had been setting up camp and regaining his balance… and Genma had fished the piglet from a spring.

A queasy feeling passed over his stomach at the thought of how he and the Jusenkyo guide had almost eaten this teenager, coupled with the memory of asking the guide about the effects of the curse on a dead body. Knowing that if he hadn't thrown the piglet into the pan to boil, that it would have turned human far too late to save him…

Genma dropped his beer outside the bath and held his head in his hands, trying to fight down the nausea. Soun was gearing up to use his demon-head technique.

"Mr. Tendo, you have every right to be mad. But right now your daughter has accepted a challenge and needs my help as a trainer." The boy bowed, bandana in hand acting as a shield for his modesty. "If you want, I can discuss this with everyone at breakfast. It will be good to eat as a human again."

Genma found himself nodding with the sentiment as the teenager shot him a quizzical look, then exited to the changing room where his son was waiting. Genma sighed as the door slid shut and moved to give his training partner a backrub.

"Better keeping this a secret than all the drugs the demon had us hopped up on at your youngest's age, eh Soun?" The responding wail and cascade of tears as Tendo lamented his daughter growing up meant that Genma was now trying his hardest not to scratch up his despondent friend's back with his transformed black claws.

  


* * *

  


Akane was getting frustrated. A snapped plastic hoop, cluttered juggling clubs, and a tangled up gymnastic ribbon dangling from her left ear showed that the grace and balance she had on a pair of skates did not transfer over.

Ryoga was beet red as he returned to the dojo in human form, Ranma’s hand on his shoulder steering him. "Right, uh, the reason I got changed. I'm trained in rhythmic martial arts - it is one of my mother's specialties. I can train you."

Akane beamed wildly at her friend. "Thank you Ryo-chan!" Ranma gave a small grin as Ryoga's blush intensified.

Soon Ryonami had been summoned by the phone, the three g… two girls and one boy, rather, were wearing swimsuits under their gi and following Ryoga’s drills. The usual sound of Nabiki's camera going off during the training served as a nice background to their learning.

  


* * *

  


Kasumi gently shuffled Genma from the guest room that night. "You can room with Father, our guest will need a human sized bed tonight." Ranma was giving Ryoga a tour of the house at human scale before bed, the young girl steering her childhood friend about the house.

Kasumi had checked in to see if Ryoga was fully vegetarian the other day and thankfully all she had to avoid with his breakfast and bento was pork, ham and bacon. She prepared the lunches for all four school-goers tomorrow and then made her way to her bedroom to sleep.

She changed into her pyjamas and plugged her headphones into the stereo she kept by the bed, audio extension cords looped at the foot of her blankets as she settled in and turned the metal music down low, the perfect level to disrupt her dreams and give her a good night's sleep.

  


* * *

  


Soun was happy when he woke up, though the reason for his friend sharing the room soon pushed its way into his mind and soured the mood. He went through his normal morning routine and once dressed and washed plugged Genma’s nose until he woke up spluttering.

"You've gotten soft, old friend. Maybe you should crawl back home and take your lumps, live in the lap of luxury again." Genma looked mildly panicked at the near invocation of his wife, making Soun laugh before sliding his stoic face into position.

He wandered out into the dining room to face his daughters, taking his seat at the table and closing his eyes to focus on the ki of the others in the house. He endured Nabiki asking Kasumi if he was asleep, the grumpy aura of Akane - from having her routine disrupted, no doubt - and the nervousness from both the unintended guest and Ranma. Genma was the last to join the table and once food was placed before everyone Soun snapped his eyes open.

A grin was smothered by his stoic mask as he saw Ranma and the other boy jump in place, before he turned to Akane. "Were you aware?"

"Of course Dad! Kasumi pointed out how honourable he was being for revealing his curse. And he watches the wall when I get changed." She said with a huff, before taking several vindictive bites of her breakfast.

"And is the cat bed warm enough for you, young man, or do you SHARE MY DAUGHTER'S BED!?" Soun yelled, summoning the ki he had been storing into a demon head attack.

Akane bristled in her seat as the boy trembled in place, before rallying himself and saying "There’s a blanket with the pet bed i-it keeps me plenty warm sir!"

Soun let the illusion fall away and began to eat his breakfast. "Nabiki, you will ensure he is enrolled at the school. He can visit the school uniform shop on the way in this morning. It's across from the gym."

Nabiki paled at that. "Um, Daddy, Ryoga has problems with directions. I could take him to get fitted and pick him up after he's dressed maybe?"

Soun narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Are you questioning my generosity here, daughter?"

Soun was hit over the back of the head and when he glared around for a culprit saw shocked faces directed at the serene Kasumi. As he caught her eye she said, "Father, it really is dreadful, and i'm sure the curse has only made it worse. Let Akane and Ranma take care of the uniform."

Akane bristled again. "I don't want to miss out on my first official Anything Goes challenge because you scared off my trainer, Dad!"

She frowned heavily at him. “And if you scare him off there’s no chance he’ll get back before the match.” After a moment she turned to her friend-slash-disguised pet and sheepishly said. “Not to sell you short Ryo-chan, I’d just rather not risk my first proper challenge.”

Ryoga waved the apology off, before he and his two guides for the morning trooped off to get to school.

Nabiki turned to Soun and smiled adorably. “So, Daddy, since you’re letting Ryo-chan stay in Akane’s room in cursed form…” The temperature of the room seemed to dip. “It’s only fair if my fiancé gets their futon moved to my room. Right?” The sound of Kasumi sharpening a knife in the kitchen filled the room.

  


* * *

  


Ryoga wore his backpack during the trip to school, worried he might get turned around somewhere along the way. The streets around them twisted impossibly along the way, and he gave up on trying to keep track of landmarks when he saw a tree growing sideways from a canal. Ranma was in her wig and uniform again and was steering him by the shoulder, as Akane started to loosen up her arms.

“He still hasn’t given up on you?” Ryoga asked, having been subject to several late-night venting sessions about her main stalker at school.

“Damn straight. At least we’ll get paid from his rich perversions.” Akane said with a shudder. “All this because he ruined the only shop hiring…”

Ranma tugged Ryoga away from what he thought the path was, the open walkway looking inviting barring the large path of water in the way. A wall opened up in front of the two and revealed the schoolyard, Ryoga looking back the way they came with confusion. Akane gave a small smile and said “Come on Ryo-chan let’s get you a uniform.”

Ryoga heard both of his escorts sigh in exasperation as a boy stepped out from behind a tree. Ranma took Ryoga by the shoulder again. “Goddamn freak stalkin’ the school in case we come early now.”

“Kuno, how long do you wait for me every morning?” Akane said, exasperated as she tossed her schoolbag to Ryoga.

“Nevermind where I doth decide to partake in mine homework, whomst is this boy you speak so casually with!” Kuno declared.

Ranma paused and turned to the kendoist. “... Upperclassman, did you miss our big fight last week?” Ryoga could hear the genuine bafflement in their voice.

“Ah, but perhaps I shoul-” Ryoga groaned and held up a hand.

“I know who you are, Tatewaki. I’ve heard Akane complain about you enough times.” This didn’t seem to calm down the raging inferno of Kuno’s thoughts - Ryoga thought he could smell brimstone and burning hair.

“She holds you in confidence?!” Ryoga jumped back to avoid a sudden lunge of his blade, Akane’s bookbag taking a dent in its front.

“Cut it out, Kuno! He just trains me for rhythmic gymnastics!” As always, her words didn’t make the bastard listen - Ryoga threw Akane her bag back and blocked with his arms, wincing at the pain of the strong blows.

“No man shall be permitted to touch Akane without my leave!” Kuno increased the intensity of his attacks and Ryoga winced as one of the bruises was whipped again and again.

“Stop blocking and hit back at that sexist trash, Ryo-chan!” Akane yelled, Ryoga nodding and walking through the strikes, punching at the bokken as it approached him.

Kuno darted backwards and tried to use the reach of the bokken against him, but Ryoga was able to move to the side of each strike at range. The air pressure of each strike was cleaving statuary, a shard of the wall and divots through the ground.

“Stand fiend and feel the wrath of the Blue Thunder!” There was a storm rolling in at his declaration. Ryoga saw Ranma look worriedly in his direction from behind the posing kendoist.

“Be quiet upperclassman, I need to get to class!” Ryoga hedged.

“I will NOT let you attend the same class as Akane!” Kuno’s arrogance was really starting to piss off Ryoga. He gave up on blocking and wound up for a gigantic punch as Kuno slashed forward.

A peal of thunder highlighted the splintering as Ryoga punched the bokken straight-on, and he found himself shrinking in place and the feeling of a hand scooping him up in a rush, the sound of his clothes following in the wake of his rescuer.

  


* * *

  


Akane had to distract Kuno in a hurry to preserve Ryoga’s secret. “Look out, a giant panda!”

Kuno turned to see Genma’s cursed form at the gates to the school, holding an umbrella over Nabiki who was carrying the four kids’ bundled lunches. “Nabiki, we got into some, ah. Problems. I’ll go help out with our guest’s uniform if you can still get to registration?”

Ignoring the fuming Kuno the sisters made their way into the school, Nabiki quietly locking the door behind her as she slid inside. “Ugh, I have to share a class with that creep.”

Akane patted her sister on the shoulder in sympathy as they swapped their shoes for the school slippers and Nabiki slid the umbrella into her locker. She took her, Ryoga and Ranma’s lunches with a nod of thanks (and a grin at Ryoga’s being tied with one of his spare bandanas) and made her way to the uniform shop.

Ranma gave an awkward wave as Akane approached, the sound of Ryoga getting changed behind the curtain. “Had to make a stop by the bathroom, shut him in a stall and sprayed a handful of hot water over the top.”

Ryoga spoke through the curtain. “Yeah, those hooks you girls have in there are a godsend.”

Akane ground her teeth and counted to ten. “You went into the girl’s bathroom?”

Ranma looked surprised at the scowl on her face. “Uh, yeah? Couldn’t get to the nurse this early, and I’m not about to go into the mens’ dressed like this, pet pig or no.”

Akane scowled at him, then turned to the back of the uniform shop. “Ryo-chan, get out here so I can hit you for being a pervert!”

Ryoga stepped out into the main room of the shop, a sharp looking dark gurinkan with the jacket hanging open. Akane gave a nod at his look, before giving a quick slap over the cheek. “Try not to get changed in the girl’s bathroom again, Ryo-chan.” She then took a look at the hand he punched at Kuno’s weapon, wincing at the puncture wound between his knuckles. “You need to get that bandaged up. Ranma’s got a safe place to change with the nurse, up to you if you want to talk to her about… things.” Akane waved the two boys off and resigned herself to taking control of the cost of Ryoga’s uniform.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that everything has been proceeding logically! Let me know what yall think about all the chaos, okay?


	11. The twisted love of the Black Rose

Kodachi preened in the highly polished plaque outside St Bacchus’ School for Girls, enjoying the look of her severely angled makeup. She plucked a kudzu creeper from the iron wrought fence, twirling it into her hair as she daintily skipped her way home.

Her preemptive strike against her next opponent had gone off without a hitch, those pretenders at Furinkan High would certainly have to forfeit now.

A wicked grin darted across her lips as she passed the inferior school, ears primed for anyone singing her praises as they should.

However…

“Did you hear? Akane Tendo is going to be representing us! She got a new trainer brought in and everything, he’s probably an expert in Martial Arts Gymnastics!” One fool brayed to another.

“That stupid panda ruined his fight with Kuno this morning, he could probably have kicked his ass after he fought Saotome to a draw.” The second agreed.

Tendo was to be her opponent, huh? Perhaps it’s time she paid the councillor’s compound a visit… as part of her civic duty, of course.

Kodachi tittered quietly to herself as she went home to get her supplies.

  


* * *

  


“What on earth was that laughter?” Soun asked his fellow Anything Goes Master as the pair returned from an early afternoon trip to the public baths. Genma grunted in response. “For goodness’ sake, Saotome, you’re human right now, act like it.”

“Well, how am I meant to know? You’re the one who lives here.” He grumbled.

“You know you and your child can stay as long as you want, even if the engagement doesn’t work out, Genma.” Soun gently chided his friend, his hand moving to squeeze at the back of the shorter man’s neck.

“... Even if we have to hide from Nodoka?” Genma hedged.

Soun sighed. “Maybe if you’d told me what you actually agreed on we could contact her and get things sorted out..?”

Genma held up a sign that read ‘I’m just a harmless panda’.

“For god’s sake, Genma, at least change forms before you pull that move.”

  


* * *

  


Clad in her battle leotard, prepared with a bouquet of black knockout roses and a handy mallet hidden inside her cloak, the Black Rose of St. Bacchus confirmed the name on the outside of the dojo sign before leaping up onto the perimeter of the compound. She lightly exulted in the sound of a pair of old commoners back at ground level making shocked exclamations, before climbing down one of the many trees near the fence.

Noting the sound of battle in the dojo itself, Kodachi slunk inside silently after dropping the cloak on the building’s roof. She bit the stem of one rose, looped her gymnastics ribbon around her waist to secure the mallet in place, then grinned at the naivety of the Tendo clan for putting nameplates on their doors. She slid into Akane’s room, noting to herself the appropriate nature of the duckling that shared her name.

As Kodachi climbed up onto the ceiling and settled herself in to wait, she chuckled to herself at the thought of making this Akane into a lame duck.

Ryoga was proud of the progress he had managed to get done in only two days of drills - Akane was able to loop one ribbon around each of her fists and feet, which would be a way to bring her Anything Goes experience into the match. “Have you figured out a good knot to use to stop it from slipping loose outside your control yet?”

Ranma was staying back and letting Ryoga take the lead on the training this time - he was proud of his student for picking up the skill so quickly, and was grateful to miss Saotome for being a good sport about being a living training dummy.

Akane groaned in frustration. “It’s only six days off, if they have style points I’m screwed.”

Ranma gave a grin. “I dunno, you’re doing pretty good compared to yesterday.”

The trio all grimaced at the thought of when it took the three of them, plus Nabiki, to remove Akane and Ranma from the tangled mess they’d be stuck together with last night.

Ryoga gave a hand with untangling the ribbons and sent Akane off to grab a nap before dinner. She gave a yawn and nodded, meandering her way to the bath.

Ranma stretched out. “Thanks for helping out with this, Ryo-chan.”

“Damn it Ranma, I might accept that nickname from Akane and her sisters, but you’ll use my name if I’m human.” Ryoga said as he put away the tools of the night.

“Sorry man, I’ll keep that in mind for the future.” She said with a small shrug. “But hey, actual food tonight?”

Ryoga nodded in acknowledgement of that. “I’m so happy to have a curry that isn’t a damned egg. Too bad the old man expects me to change before bed.”

“Nabiki wasn’t happy about that either, wanted us both to be able to sleep in our birth forms, but Soun put his foot down.” A hand gently patted Ryoga on the back. “At least we can grab a bath together for the end of a night of training. You’ve got swim trunks, right?”

Ryoga blushed at the thought of sharing the bath with a woman, despite her form, and nodded.

  


* * *

  


Akane yawned with a long stretch as she wandered her way barefoot from the bathroom to her room. Hopefully a nap would get her appetite back - the nerves from the upcoming match was playing with her head, though Ranma did feel it was normal to take on a master at their own skill with Anything Goes challenges, this was her first time and she really worried she wouldn’t get her skills up to par in time.

She flopped backwards onto her bed and sighed, blinking her eyes open to rue that she’d not yet turned off the light. She locked gazes with a woman in a gymnastics leotard clinging to her body as tightly as her fingers and toes were clinging to the ceiling tiles.

Her foe dropped from her ceiling at once on being seen, her hand whipping the mallet from her back in mid-air. “Akane Tendo, prepare yourself!”

Akane instinctively flung herself sideways off her bed as the mallet indented into her bedsprings, a flip into loose fists bringing her ready to defend herself against her unknown foe. “Who are you anyway?!”

“I am from St Bacchus’s School for Girls. Kodachi, the black rose!” Black petals floated out from her hair as she posed with the mallet before swinging it horizontally at Akane’s midsection. Belatedly, she added. “I shall be your opponent next week!”

Akane darted back to her desk, pulling her right foot out of the way of a direct swing. “So let us both do our best and fight in all fairness!”

She aimed a kick directly at Kodachi’s head, grimacing as she dodged to the side. “You call this ‘in all fairness?’ You’re the one ambushing the Furinkan team!”

“Ambush? What a boorish term! I simply believe in fighting in all fairness, before the match!” Kodachi said with a sneer as she readied the mallet for another blow.

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard!” Akane said, keeping her guard up.

A knock at the door was joined by a feminine voice of one of her guests. “Akane, do you need help?” Kodachi stepped to the side and readied the mallet.

Akane turned to yell at him through the door. “Ranma, don’t get in the way of my battles!”

Kodachi pivoted a half-step and swung the mallet at Akane’s head as she was distracted, but it was easy enough to kick out of the way, tired as she was. Frankly, Kodachi was giving her hope that when Kuno finally stopped pretending that she could actually hold her own.

“So, the rumours are true… I shall return!” Kodachi yelled to fill the silence after the mallet impacted with the carpet. She pulled the gymnastic ribbon from her waist and spun it in front of herself, spraying rose petals from it in a spiral. While they clouded Akane’s vision, she heard her window sliding open.

Akane glared at the single black rose amidst all the petals. “And just who do you think will clean all this up!?” She yelled out the window as the breeze spread the mess around her wrecked room.

  


* * *

  


Ryoga had rushed to join Ranma when he had heard the sound of combat, but the compound twisted around his feet and the stairs upwards started to lead downwards. He growled with anger and swung himself off the side of the railing, hoping to actually land at the foyer.

Somehow his left foot was on one of the kitchen counters and the other was damp with the thankfully warm runoff from the drained bath. He roared with anger and shut his eyes, stepping backwards and feeling a chill at his back.

He had somehow walked out of a window of the guest room, and he carefully held onto the edge of the tiles. “Ranma, Akane, anybody!” He yelled.

There was the sound of someone slipping off the higher roof above him, and he glanced up to see a stunned woman falling from above. He jumped on an intercept course, figuring that the ground would naturally be reachable as long as he was holding someone else, and it seemed to follow logically for once.

Ryoga swept her into his arms and spun about to let his legs take the brunt of the fall. Thankfully he hadn’t hit the pond - though his feet were now stuck deep in the earth next to the rock garden. He ground his teeth together to ignore the pain as she woke from her shock.

She held her hands up to her face, shifting under Ryoga’s hands before swinging her arms around his shoulders. “I was so frightened!”

Ryoga nodded in acknowledgement as he felt tears run down his back, trying to carefully maneuver her to put her down on her own legs. Thankfully she had let go of his neck so he was able to put her daintily down on her bare feet.

She held her hands in front of her face in a prayer as she beseeched him. “Please, sir, may I know your name?”

“Ryoga Hibiki, miss..?” He tried to fish for her own name.

Instead, he got a handful of black roses. “For you, my Ryoga!” They sprayed a blast of pollen right into his face and he felt himself going slack.

She laughed triumphantly as he started to topple backwards, legs still sticking straight out of the ground. The look on her face was intense as she triumphantly explained. “A bit of paralysis powder in the bouquet!” She then pressed her knee into his stomach and grasped his shoulders as her face loomed close in his unblinking eyes.

“Now, my Ryoga… be brave and take these lips of mine!” Ryoga was panicking inside as he felt the heat of her breath blowing across his grimacing teeth, her nose against his.

“No stealing kisses on my watch, lady!” Ranma said as she kicked his assailant off him. Ryoga watched the sky above him helplessly as Akane moved into view, looking down on him with a grimace on her face.

“Kodachi… you’ll pay for hurting my friend, too.” She declared to Ryoga’s stuck form.

The woman who almost stole his virtue laughed as she bounded away, grumbling about the timing. Ryoga’s eyes watered as both of his friends peered down at him.

  


* * *

  


Ranma had noticed Ryoga could still move his eyes upwards and downwards, and was able to use the same communication they used in his potbelly form to gather that they were OK with Soun getting them changed for the bath.

Both teenagers clad in swimwear slid into the thankfully hot water, the boy cradled against her flat chest as they carefully washed the hair of his directionally challenged friend, using one hand to keep the soapy water from entering his paralysed eyes.

“God, that utter… I’m so sorry Ryoga, this wasn’t meant to happen to you.” His eyes moved and indicated strong agreement, making Ranma laugh slightly under her friend. “Kas-chan might be willing to keep an eye on you so you don’t choke tonight, depending on how your tongue’s arranged when we change you…”

Ryoga was, naturally, ambivalently silent on the issue. Ranma continued putting their expertise in patching up injured men to task on getting Ryoga’s paralysed lower legs to ease up from their 90 degree angle as she continued to babble.

“If you aren’t mobile by the morning, I’m leaving you with Doc Tofu - you haven’t met him yet I don’t think; he’s pretty nice - and we’ll both take the day off school. Or maybe Akane would be the best one to take care of you…” Ranma continued to ramble before eventually noticing the still-solid boy in their lap was dozing lightly, even with his eyes still open.

“God, I’ll pay her back for this…” Ranma vowed before slipping out of the bath and using the smallest amount of cold water to transform the two of them as possible, before picking up the bundled set of shorts with the thankfully still sleeping pig inside and wandering to go see her fianceé and both her sisters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What the hell did Nodoka do to scare Genma so bad?


	12. Practice goes awry!

Thankfully for everyone's grades, the paralysis had worn off partway through the night - Ryo-chan woke up tangled in the small pet blanket, his stubby legs having spasmed randomly in his sleep as he recovered.

Ryoga was trailing behind Akane by a chain of bandanas, Nabiki and Ranma having left earlier again. He saw a swinging weapon swinging at her head moments before she swivelled and grabbed the shinai in one hand.

Kodachi proceeded to spin some trite nonsense about coming to visit Ryoga, acting as though she hadn't just tried to break Akane’s head open, and he skipped back from her when she tried to grab hold of him. Ryoga was turned around and saw Kuno approaching from behind his tree again, a bouquet of red roses in hand.

The upperclassman spoke with his eyes shut and bokken in his left hand. "Akane Tendo, I shall date with you!" He bellowed, swinging the weapon wildly.

Ryoga turned his back to take the brunt of the attack, the wooden weapon breaking against his sturdy hiker's pack. Ryoga sneered as the proof of his holding back against Akane was confirmed, then rapped his knuckles against Kuno's forehead. "Watch who you're attacking, idiot."

"I despise you, Hibiki." Kuno said as Ryoga felt hands grabbing his biceps from behind.

His preparation to break free from the grip was broken when he heard Kodachi purring his name, and the fact that Kuno was suddenly planting a firm hand on his shoulder and saying "Yes." for some reason had Ryoga far too confused.

"Yes what?" Akane asked on Ryoga’s behalf.

"Yes, you may date my sister." Tatewaki Kuno explained. Ryoga started shaking his head in disbelief.

Kodachi spun Ryoga around and grabbed hold of the lapels of his uniform. "My Ryoga would reject me?" The tears in her eyes were real and he couldn't back up properly.

"Uhh, uhh, I…" Ryoga looked around for help, before settling on the truth. "I can't settle down, I get lost easily." Akane nodded in acknowledgement.

Kodachi let go of him for a moment to spin in place girlishly. "Oh my! A wandering nomad, how romantic!" Ryoga started backing up as she faced him again. "Yes, Ryoga, I will wait for you!"

The bell rang and Ryoga panicked. "I have to get to class!" He spun around and ran in a straight line.

  


* * *

  


Ryonami patted Ranma’s back as her sensei beat their head against a door at the end of the day.

"He probably freaked out when he realized he was lost and tried to go outside again." They moaned as reports from Akane, Sayuri, Yuka, Kotone, Kikuko, Nabiki and the two boys filtered in. They had collectively searched the school grounds and found no sight of Ryoga.

"He can still make it back before the match, right?" Ryonami gently said as Nabiki slid her hand in the path of Ranma’s forehead.

Akane chewed at a nail nervously. "At least we know the tools of the trade and the 'attack with weapons' rule? Maybe we can keep working at my ribbon control…"

Ranma groaned. "I was gonna see if he could give a crash course in the iron cloth technique, get you a poleaxe to fight with." Ryonami nodded in acknowledgement of the weaponry on display at Nabiki's house.

The martial artist students began wandering the way of the dojo. Akane and Ranma walked slowly but steadily along the brick fences on the path Ranma had chosen as Ryonami matched their pace on the curb. Nabiki was taking the more direct route home, not having to work on her balance.

"So I get that it's like, school pride or whatever." Ryonami said as she leapt over the length of a level crossing. "But frankly Furinkan sucks. You could have said no."

She caught the two on the fence turning their heads her way in puzzlement. "Uh… no?" Ranma said after a moment.

Akane nodded as she resumed walking, prompting Ranma to jog ahead a little along a wrought iron gate. "We can't. It's the school motto to accept all challenges."

"Ranma Saotome can't lose." Ranma repeated in a dull voice.

Akane leapt the length of the gate and continued behind Ranma. "For us it's more 'be the rock, endure, learn, then beat them in a rematch if you fail.' Dad never really said what to worry about when it's high stakes…"

Ryonami wondered as she continued keeping pace. "Work on your stamina and figure it out mid fight?"

"Or pull a Kodachi." Ranma said with a laugh. "Although maybe it should be 'pull a Genma', I'm sure he's done more cheating and underhanded tricks than she can dream of." The teens all arrived at the Tendo compound, the two who actually lived there lightly jumping over the blue-tiled fence as Ryonami made her way through the gate.

“Okay Sensei, what’s my job today?” Ryonami said after getting changed into the swimsuit and gi setup they had been getting used to lately. Akane was dressed in a leotard and Ranma was compromising by having a leotard and their gi on outside it.

“Dodging, since Akane will be working at range.” Ranma nodded. “I’ll be working on figuring out a solid knot to tie the ribbons into for her hands and feet.”

Ryonami nodded and readied herself, Akane spinning the ribbon lightly before whipping it forward to snap at her stomach.

  


* * *

  


Ryonami’s bruises from the hard weekend of work were still worryingly present monday afternoon, so the three teens stopped by Doctor Ono’s clinic for bruise cream as Ranma decided she would act as the referee for this night’s practice.

The match was tomorrow and Ranma was quietly confident in Akane’s skill level - she seemed to have a good sense of where attacks would come from after the month of morning attacks, so he was confident that Kodachi’s dirty tricks wouldn’t be half as effective as the paralysing witch hoped.

Ryonami was coming along nicely with her balance training, and hopefully by the time the bruising on her posterior had healed up she could get her used to controlling a fall. Ranma was hoping the three of them could step up the fence-walking to thinner ones for Akane and brick ones for Ryonami by the end of the week.

Akane called out that she was home moments before the team made their way to the dojo, Ranma hearing a strange noise as Akane was warming up. They poked around in the cupboard for the gymnastics equipment and gave a shocked gasp to see a piglet dragging a backpack through a pile of plastic hoops.

“Ryo-chan’s back!” Ranma called, Akane cutting her stretches short to come give Ryoga a hug. Ranma was moving the backpack into the room and gathering a change of clothes for their friend as she commented on his taste in souvenirs. “Oh buddy, crackers from Hiroshima? Tea cakes from Kyoto? You want me to drop these with Kasumi?”

Ryoga nodded his head and Ranma started to leave the room when they saw Ryonami staring in mute shock at the pile of clothes Akane was showing the piglet. “Oh crap. Uhhh… Hey… Ryo-chan is a quite intelligent pig.” Ranma tried to explain.

Ryonami raised an eyebrow as the piglet in question and his nominal owner turned to see her.

“Uhhhh, I’ll explain in a minute? Can you give these gifts to Kasumi?” Ranma hedged, passing Ryoga’s gifts to Nabiki’s friend. She narrowed her eyes but acquiesced and left the room.

Ryoga looked very annoyed at Ranma as he explained who Ryonami was - a second martial arts student - before Akane brought up that the pet ruse was only ever for Soun’s benefit. Ryoga nodded begrudgingly and oinked at Ranma until their code of ‘get me a place to change’ came through the forgetful teenagers’ thick head.

Ryonami wandered back into the dojo as Ranma was setting up Ryoga’s tent in the yard. “So what’s the deal with this ‘intelligent pig’, then?”

“Right, yes. Just nearly finished for our uh. Magic trick?” Ranma said with a shrug at the tent as he thudded the last stake in. She took Ryoga’s clothes and dropped them inside along with a thermos from the side pocket of his hiking pack which they uncapped and balanced on a flat part of the tent.

“So, right, uhh… This is Akane’s pet, Ryo-chan.” Ranma said theatrically as Akane made a show of sweeping the bandana-tied piglet around Ryonami’s head, the piglet rolling his eyes at the drama. She placed him inside the tent and zipped it up. “Also known as…” There was a sound of cloth shifting before Ryoga in his casual wear unzipped the tent. “The esteemed Ryoga Hibiki.”

“Nice trick, more magic?” All three of the younger teens nodded. “Right then, let’s see how an actual expert in this rhythmic gymnastics stuff can do with our practicing.”

  


* * *

  


Nabiki brought snacks out to watch a bit of the bout later, after quickly bringing down Ryoga’s tent before Soun could see it and start to renegotiate the sleeping arrangements. She sat down next to her friend as Akane, Ryoga and Ranma started to battle.

Akane had ribbons wrapped around each of her limbs for padding, the green fabric wrapped around her left arm and foot leading up to where her forearms and forelegs had the ribbons’ wands secured with classical bows tied in two places. The same designs on her right were in orange, and the black leotard she was wearing was complemented by the fifth ribbon in lavender, twirling about in a defensive curl.

Ryoga threw a couple of juggling clubs in Akane’s direction and her sister flung the purple ribbon’s wand up into the air to catch the clubs and make a double stab at Ranma’s head, before they twirled their hoop to yank the clubs from Akane’s hand.

Ranma took a balance ball to the face after a quick kick from Akane, and they did a sideways cartwheel to keep the hoop between the two fighters. Ryoga continued to throw Akane tools which she utilized against Ranma in the battle, the more skilled artist getting bombarded by the tenacious Tendo.

Akane caught the wand from one last juggle and darted it forward to grasp the hoop as she took a determined step forward… slipping on the balance ball which had bounced about after the attack earlier. Ranma wasn’t letting go of the hoop, which tugged them forward in front of the falling Akane.

There was a painful crunch as Akane’s full weight landed knee-first onto Ranma’s elbow.

  


* * *

  


Ranma had commanded Akane and Ryoga keep practicing even as she and Nabiki had gathered Kasumi from her room, the muffled sounds of the Sabbrabells dimming as she turned down her radio. Kasumi winced at the look of Ranma’s arm, glad it didn’t seem to be broken, but it would have a nasty sprain for a few days.

Ryonami wandered up to join Nabiki and Ranma in their room since it seemed to be medic duty time, and as she admitted to Kasumi she could do with some private application of Tofu’s salve while it was just girls.

Ranma gave a small grimace at that. “I don’t know that I’m feeling all that ‘girl’ right now, ‘Nami. Would rather not see any butts not in a bathing suit.” Nabiki gave a grin in Kasumi’s direction, and she rolled her eyes back at her sister.

Kasumi focused on wrapping up Ranma’s elbow before lightly tying the ice pack around the injury with a pressure bandage. “Two things, Ranchan. See Tofu after school tomorrow to see how long we need to keep things sorted - I know martial artists heal faster and he’ll at least know how long with whatever level of ki control he has.” Ranma nodded.

“And I’m not to move my elbow until then.” She acknowledged, Kasumi giving a smile in response.

“Yes, that’s right. And secondly - I am sorry if I’ve pushed too hard for you to ‘go girl’.” Kasumi said with an apologetic nod. “I admit I’ve been thinking of you as a little sister.”

Ranma blushed and seemed to glance in Nabiki’s direction. “I mean, I don’t mind with the curse and all, but just… yeah.” She- sorry, they chewed a lip. “Sometimes I’m a girl, but that’s not all the time.”

“I’m sorry, I only thought with your talk about your birth body…” Kasumi tried to explain, even as she moved over to where Ryonami was lying down on the bed. Ranma turned to examine Nabiki’s desk in detail as her friend stripped down, Kasumi gently applying the salve to all the bruises she could see while maintaining her modesty.

Kasumi glanced back over her shoulder to check on her sister after a moment, smiling to see Ranma getting a comforting back rub in the silence of Nabiki’s room. Kasumi and Ryonami got her redressed and quietly waved goodbye to Nabiki, shutting the door quietly on the way out.

“So, will your mother be doing the application of the salve tomorrow?” Kasumi asked, and Ryonami blushed and gave a nod. “Hopefully you’ll be a bit more focused.” Kasumi said with a sly grin as Ryonami blushed even further.

  


* * *

  


Ranma as usual left for school early, giving a small wave with her uninjured arm to Kasumi as they left. Nabiki had screen printed the three colours of her ribbons as flowers and bamboo onto her leotard overnight and had already printed up some flyers advertising the Black Rose of Saint Bacchus versus the Vibrant Woman of Furinkan High. Akane had reluctantly agreed to the moniker at the last minute, and Ranma hoped she wouldn’t be too embarrassed as she and the rest of Nabiki’s team distributed flyers before class.

Despite everyone warning the administration about Ryoga’s problems with directions, he had been lumped with extra homework for the days of school he’d missed, so Ranma made sure to give Kasumi a call to pick him up from the school as they got changed at the nurse’s office.

Ranma gave their fellow cursed classmate a pat on the shoulder before the two got changed either side of a divider in the office. “Right, she’ll be by shortly so you can get help from the teacher while we’re setting up for the match at Bacchus, OK?”

Ryoga grunted and stuck his now-human head around the divider. “Once you drop me at the teachers lounge, yes.” There had been a freak rainstorm in the middle of the day, so Ryoga was ‘absent’ again - he’d just gotten the nurse to explain that yes, he was the pig that attended class in the afternoon.

Ranma led their friend to the lounge before joining the betting team. Nabiki was nodding along to Ryonami’s analysis, conveniently nice and loud for all the Furinkan students to hear, that Kodachi probably wasn’t that great if she had to resort to ambushes.

Ranma shrugged. “Well, I fought her and she was pretty good during one of those ambushes, my only problem was that she was bullying them after the fact. If that changes the odds at all.”

Ryonami gave a nod and began a whispered conversation about what they observed during the fight, before she gave the modified odds to the students.

Nabiki nodded in thanks to her fiancé and slowly began herding the school along the path to St Bacchus, wanting to get the word amongst the girls there about how good the odds she provided were so she could get more bets.

  


* * *

  


Kasumi found it strange to be walking through Furinkan’s mostly empty halls - the sound of some after school clubs and the few study halls were about all that she could hear. She carefully made her way to the teachers’ lounge before knocking on the door. “Excuse me, I do hope Ryoga is here?”

The door opened shortly and a frustrated teacher glanced at Kasumi, then back at Ryoga sitting quietly at a desk packing up his homework. “I don’t know how you conned the nurse into this joke but I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”

“Joke?” Ryoga sighed as she entered the classroom and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Getting lost, turning into a pig? Please.” The teacher said as they gathered their keys and gestured for the two younger people to leave the room.

“Oh, that’s not a joke, that’s just the truth.” She said kindly as Ryoga began untying five bandanas from the single one around his head, and began tying them into a short chain and held onto one end, before handing the other end to Kasumi.

Kasumi felt the teacher watching her back as she returned to the entranceway to retrieve her shoes, carefully tugging the chain of bandanas when she noticed her charge starting to drift away from his locker.

“Have you been enjoying school, Ryo-chan?” Kasumi asked as she led the way to St Bacchus.

“It’s been a lot more peaceful than the middle school I shared with Ranma.” He said with a shrug. “Easier to learn from listening to someone than from a book. Glad the cursed form has good hearing.”

Kasumi nodded. “I never was good at listening in class, I need to have some form of music playing myself. I never thought traditional schooling worked best for everyone.” A small smile thrown over her shoulder at her houseguest. “Do let me know if my music is ever too loud, okay?”

Ryoga smiled back and the two shortly made themselves to St Bacchus. Kasumi asked Ryoga to stay put a moment while she asked for directions to the gym from one of the students milling about outside near one of Nabiki’s flyers.

There was a sound of water landing on the ground and Kasumi slowly turned to look at Ryoga’s cursed form on the ground. Both sighed in unison as she picked him up after tucking his clothes away in his backpack.

“Oh, what a cutie!” Some of the younger girls at the school came over to pet Ryoga, which Kasumi allowed but didn’t let any of them hold him. She didn’t want to lo- and her arms were empty.

Kasumi turned to see her sisters’ foe holding Ryo-chan by the neckerchief. “This pig… will help me greatly.”

“But he’s not… yours?” Kasumi said as Kodachi leapt away in a peal of laughter.

Kasumi sighed and followed the path of the gymnast.

  


* * *

  


“And now, the champions of the schools!” The announcer to the side of the ring spoke over the speaker system.

Akane nodded to her sisters, her fellow Anything Goes student, and her injured sensei as she walked up, her costume wrapped in a dressing gown. She glared at the Kunos on the other side of the ring as Kodachi stepped through the ring and flung her own dressing gown outside the squared circle. “In this corner, from St Bacchus’ School for girls… Kodachi Kuno!”

Akane saw Nabiki nod at Kodachi, before glancing and notice the red leotard she wore was emblazoned with black roses. She gave Nabiki a grin in thanks at her complementing colour scheme. “And for Furinkan High, Akane Tendo!”

Even more cheers lit up the room than what Kodachi had earned as Akane revealed her own painted leotard. Kasumi caught the flung dressing gown and began folding it up as the two gymnasts faced each other. Ryonami was tasked with tossing tools in since Ryoga had been kidnapped.

“Champions, to the centre!” The referee called, then set the two to shake hands. Kodachi pointed to Kasumi and said “Oh my! Is your sister drawing on your dressing gown?”

Akane found herself glancing Kasumi’s way for half a moment, before feeling a heavy shackle lock onto her wrist. Kodachi grinned wickedly. “Carelessness is your enemy.”

Akane glanced down at the manacle, then lifted the chain to confirm… “Ryo-chan?” She then turned to face Kodachi with a grin. “Oh, you just gave me an ally, Kuno. My pet and I have been training for this day!” She swung the chain along her left arm and Ryoga landed on her shoulder, glaring back at Kodachi.

Kodachi stared in shock as the pig grabbed hold of the back of Akane’s neck, her opponent now wielding the metal chain as armour.

Akane grinned at Kodachi as she felt Ryoga settled in across her shoulders. “You stole my Ryo-chan. Kodachi Kuno, prepare to die!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope having about a week's worth of recovery time for the sprain is realistic for a martial artist (it's about four weeks IRL)
> 
> Also, the colours I went with in flower language signify boldness, youth, and adult femininity.
> 
> I hope the design makes sense! Also a lot of this is going to be based on the manga for now since I've mostly been waiting to watch the anime with a friend who's having to avoid hanging out at the moment.
> 
> As for the betting? It's a popularity contest versus the estimated skill levels of Akane, Ranma, and Kodachi. Let's just say that the photos Nabiki sends out are ambivalent as to who the teacher during their practice sessions is.


	13. Black Rose vs Vibrant Woman

Ryoga held onto the back of Akane’s neck as tight as his little trotters would let him. His ‘owner’ was reminded of the rules of the match from one of the Bacchus schoolgirls echoed about the gymnasium’s speakers. “No time limit! No bare-handed blows! If one contestant is knocked completely down, they’re out! If you fall from the ring, you’re an immediate loser!”

Pig and girl yelped out as the match officially started, Ryonami throwing Akane her ‘battle armour’ ribbons which she started looping around her extremities as she hopped around the ring, the quick bows only needing slight modification to accommodate her left arm’s chain link gauntlet.

Satin armour in place, Akane took a slap to the back of the legs from the rod Kodachi had wrapped her own ribbon around. Ryoga squealed in delight when the judge didn’t respond to her unorthodox weaponry - that said good things about Akane’s strategy.

Akane swung her head out of the path of one of the jabbed attacks with Kodachi’s club. The piglet on her neck had the perfect vantage point for the spikes projecting from the club, and the way it raked at the dangling end of Akane’s ponytail as she jerked her head out of the way.

  


* * *

  


Kotone was in a mild state of heaven, her two partners pressed into her sides with her hands entwined with both, and an amazing martial arts match in front of her. This was the best part of seeing the chaos unfold - the pure artistry on display. Akane seemed to be rooted to the ground, drawing energy from below as she steadfastly moved her upper body gracefully past Kodachi’s frantic blows.

Ranma’s hand was holding her left hand tight, the injured martial artist swinging their still-safe arm about at high speeds while being hyper focused on their student’s first bout.

Ryonami was keeping track of things on Nabiki’s other side, a large selection of support items to throw in at Akane’s beck and call. Kotone tugged her hand free from Nabiki and took a sip from her water bottle, before returning her hand to its warm, happy place.

Kasumi and Soun sat to the other side of Genma’s cursed body, which was in turn past Ranma. It seemed that there was an amount of snacks laid out in front of the panda, including a steaming hot kettle for tea.

  


* * *

  


Akane left her solid position on the ground to jump over the hoop Kodachi flung her way, after a flash of danger sense warned her away from it. The razor-rim on the hoop carved into the base of one of the turnstiles, before Kodachi launched her ribbon out to tug it free and use it as a deadly flail.

Ryonami responded to Akane’s shout for clubs a moment before the razor-hoop swung at Akane’s neck. As she blocked the strike with the clubs and pincered the hoop, tearing it free from the ribbon, she glared. “So, trying to kill my pet now that you know she’s mine?”

Kodachi laughed as she called for her own clubs, her arms spreading out into a parody of the dance of the thousand hands, each of the twelve apparent arms she now sported wielding its own club. “I thought my brother’s prattling about your kindness to animals was pure conjecture!”

Akane began to turn the ribbon in her own hand into a shield, thanks to Ryoga’s training - the spiralling ribbon was as defensive against the repeated club strikes as the heavy paper umbrella stored back in her room, albeit at a fraction of the weight. There was a brief stalemate of the barrage of clubs versus her shield, until Akane sped up the spinning and then launched the ribbon forward with a lunge, turning it back from its hard iron form just long enough to turn into a long funnel that snagged the varying clubs from Kodachi’s hands, sending them clattering across the mat.

“Nice trick, a dozen clubs at once.” Akane acknowledged as she loosely allowed her ribbon to surround her feet, slowly circling it around her in preparation for another barrage.

“The true test of the rhythmic gymnast is to control an endless barrage of weapons!” Kodachi said as she flipped to an undamaged turnstile, her ribbon snaking out to tug the bell right from the judges’ table. Akane snagged the razor hoop from its spot outside the ring and held it vertically up, splitting the thrown bell in two. She flung the hoop aside and snagged the entire judge’s table, flicking the ribbon straight up to avoid smacking any of the commentators or judges in the face.

Akane held the table up as a shield, laughing at Kodachi. That is, until a bokken flew through the table right next to her head. She and Ryoga made a small ‘eep’ of shock as the judges called the “Use of brother as projectile: VALID!”

Akane flung Tatewaki out of the ring and took a moment to snap her ribbon in the shape of the word “FOOL” as a flourish, before turning back to take a gymnastics mat to the face, and then a folding chair to the stomach.

Kodachi swung her ribbon out of the ring again and this time yanked the recently reheated kettle right from Mr Saotome’s paws. Akane gulped at the sight of it and began backing up, keeping her face between Ryoga and the hot water even as she dashed back from enthusiastic pourings. Strangely enough there were yelps of pain from somewhere nearby.

“Not a fan of hot water, hm?” Kodachi taunted, drowning out the sounds from... below?

“Who would be?” Akane said even as she stomped harshly in place, smirking to herself at the sound of someone wincing in pain. “I won’t let you pour that on anyone!” Akane said with a savage grin as she leapt into the air, pulling from the practice she had been putting in with her sensei.

Kodachi’s eyes flared as she registered the threat in Akane’s words, before she flung the kettle in the air and sliced it in two, steam filling midair. Akane felt an arm curl defensively around her neck as she and Ryoga ascended, desperately hoping she could help her friend maintain his dignity.

  


* * *

  


Ranma snatched Nabiki’s water as she lunged across Kotone’s lap, turning and facing the midair cloud of steam. Just had to wait long enough for…

The sound of people speculating that there were two people in the steam helped them focus as she nestled the bottle in place of her sprained arm, before pulling off the cap and slamming the heel of his hand against the plastic, launching a glob of water high into the air, right through a gap in the steam.

  


* * *

  


“And a cooling blast of water gets rid of the burning heat!” The announcing girl shouted as Akane landed heavily on the gymnastics mat, breathing heavily and flushed with embarrassment.

“That’s enough of this!” Akane shouted as she gave a charging right hand uppercut, the unchained arm sending Kodachi flying. There was a sharp whistle and the ring moved under her, dragging itself over to catch the errant Kuno.

“Thought so, you cheat!” Akane yelled, as she punched down into the mat under her and pulled up a bag of chips. “You lot, clear out!” She said even as she began tearing up the foam and canvas from the ring, revealing a swarm of other St Bacchus girls in leotards, gossiping and laughing over magazines as they filed out of the remnants of the ring.

Akane stood confidently across a few thin pieces of wood, glaring at Kodachi on the turnstile. “No more tricks, Black Rose. You showed your hand with that thousand hand strike.” A few of the girls at the middle of the ring had been wearing copies of Kodachi’s outfit.

Kodachi scooped up the razor hoop with one foot, balancing on her turnstile and facing the centre of the ring, where Akane still perched. “You really think the ring can take your weight like that? A pig is appropriate for you!”

Akane grinned to herself - Ranma had been training her to resist taunts, and the balancing certainly helped. She whipped her ribbon into the air and snagged the lighting rig far above. “Hard to fight from the sidelines, Kuno.” She spat the word.

Kodachi roared with anger and swung the razor hoop upwards at her ribbon - Akane had planned for that, didn’t want to give her any ideas about cutting the support out from under her - as her other hand swung the black ribbon around Akane’s neck. She tugged harshly on it, Ryoga’s ribcage and the manacle around him the only thing keeping her from choking.

“No fair, ref!” Ranma’s voice shouted across the sparse room even as the ribbon looped around her neck a second time. Akane grunted and began walking towards Kodachi along the thin wooden beams, making the gymnast leap to the next turnstile.

Her hair was tearing painfully at her scalp, and she heard the frantic sounds of Ryoga chewing the ribbon free, but all Akane could think of was knocking this awful cheating opponent out of the ring. She kicked at the base of the turnstile Kodachi had just leapt from, knocking it over.

She wouldn’t stop approaching the gymnast, even as the majority of her choking ribbon fell away courtesy of her piggy passenger. The second turnstile was kicked clean off the corner. “Nowhere to run, Kodachi!” Akane said as she slowly approached the third turnstile.

Kodachi laughed at Akane and leapt for the final turnstile… which slipped out from under her, shattering the remnants of the ring on that corner. Akane leant against the turnstile she’d just jumped from and smugly grinned. “Forgot which one you already cut loose, huh?”

  


* * *

  


“AKANE TENDO WINS! The Black Rose, defeated by the up and coming Vibrant Woman!”

Ranma sighed happily as she laid back down at the sight of Kodachi crying in humiliation, Kotone and Nabiki looking down upon them. “Gonna get up any time soon, dear? Or should I start charging rent?”

His fianceé’s teasing question made Ranma blush and start to sit up, before she laughed and pressed down on their shoulder. “Calm down, hero, you did great. Very dramatic dive.”

All three turned to watch Akane’s hand held high, her piglet darting around her feet as her satin gauntlets fell free to the ground. The end of her ponytail was in tatters and Kasumi gave a sigh as she walked over to sit next to her sister.

“I suppose I best get the scissors ready tonight… and some bolt cutters.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well! That was nice and chaotic, I hope the battle felt appropriately Tendo-branch (I had to keep the leap into the air for Ryoga's transformation since I didn't want our favourite pig naked in the middle of the match)
> 
> Next week, following the manga still, we have the Darling Charolette chapter... and there's a lovely headcanon for our Ryo-chan we'll be looking into soon. Ice skating fun!


	14. A kiss stolen, a kiss given

Ryoga had taken a quick dip in the bath to restore his birth form after Kasumi had snipped the manacle free from around his smaller ribs. The boy had pulled on clothes quickly then slid open the doors to let Akane and Kasumi in, the former carrying a chair and setting it up around the bathroom's drain.

"You did great, Akane." Ryoga said with a smile as the young Tendo sat down, pulling the torn gymnastics ribbon and tattered bow from her ponytail. Kasumi began brushing through the parts of her sister’s hair that survived the slashing attack as Ryoga watched the haircut with interest.

"Yes, it was quite exciting!" Kasumi said with a smile as she tidied up Akane’s haircut, leaving her a sizable amount near her neckline. "It's such a shame that Kodachi ruined your hair, I was looking forward to you being my little Rapunzel." Akane blushed with embarrassment.

The door to the bathroom suddenly opened, revealing a large panda holding a bowl of bath supplies. Ryoga focused on it, pinning the beast's body in place with his eyes.

And then Kasumi offhandedly said "We're almost done, Mr. Saotome!"

Ryoga howled with rage and began attacking the panda. "Genma Saotome, you tried to eat me! Prepare to die!"

  


* * *

  


Tensions ran high that night, Ryoga’s grudge landing both animal cursed people in the koi pond and Kasumi giving out unspiced bamboo and unsalted boiled eggs for their dinners. Ranma sided with Ryoga over the fight being justified, and the two planned out an ambush on Genma for that evening after school.

Naturally, the martial arts master held his own against the two furious teens and Kasumi grabbed both by the napes of their necks the following morning. "You aren't going to be disturbing the koi tonight." She stated with steel in her spine. "You are going to cool off after school and I will talk to Genma about his behavior."

  


* * *

  


Akane lead Ryoga to his backpack to collect some cold weather outfits, the weather outside just cool enough to make wearing warmer clothes not a complete nightmare for the walk to the ice rink.

Kasumi was busy sharpening some knives for her after-work discussion with Genma, and Nabiki had taken Kotone on a solo date. Ranma was having a relaxing day away from their family, simply hanging out with Hiroshi, Daisuke and Kikuko.

  


* * *

  


Azusa slowly skated around the perimeter of the local ice rink, her eyes roaming over the various young children visiting for signs of upset. A few students her own age were enjoying the rink, but beyond adjusting her path to avoid a handful of newbies she paid them little mind.

It seemed like the shaved ice was making good sales that evening, and she heard one girl being recruited for a school team - well, her own fault for not keeping an eye out for hopefuls. One of the kids she was watching tried running onto the ice without their skates on, too excited by the conversation with a friend lacing up their boots to keep hold of the glass of water they were carrying.

Azusa skated to help out the child, but was distracted when she saw the water hit one of the newbies she had flagged earlier. They transformed into a small piglet in a shower of drifting clothes.

Azusa still helped the child off the ice before turning to the piglet-teen, gathering up the discarded clothes in her arms. "Azusa will call you Charlotte until Charlotte can tell her her name." She said, brushing a hand along the back of the piglet's neck. "Now Azusa will return skates to the desk!"

  


* * *

  


Ranma's hangout with Kikuko, Hiroshi and Daisuke was at a ramen shop, the boys asking for dating tips.

"Well, staying away from Kuno's whole mess nets you brownie points." Kikuko said as she picked at her food. "But we hear boys talking, you know. Cool it on the lewd jokes, maybe?"

Daisuke blushed at that even as Ranma glanced down at their food and shrugged. "Unless you hear the girls crack jokes first, you know how Ryonami is."

Hiroshi stretched and attacked his food with gusto. "I'm glad to be hanging out with you guys at school, Akane's got this aura that turns away bullies."

Kikuko glanced at the entrance to the shop at the sound of the door. "Oh, speak of the angel." Akane glided over to their table and grabbed the edge of Kikuko’s chair.

"Ryo-chan’s gone missing again, but this time he's been pignapped!" The two girls behind her nodded, confirming how they’d seen a girl in a leotard carrying the piglet away.

"You don't think Kodachi wanted revenge?" Ranma asked, before Yuka shook her head.

"Too frilly a skirt to be the gothic Kuno." The door cracked open again and Kikuko grabbed Akane’s forearm and pointed at the entryway.

  


* * *

  


Azusa had followed her shape-changing friend's frantic squealing as the three girls she was trailing slipped inside a ramen shop. She went back to petting the back of her neck around Charlotte's neckerchief to calm the frantic piglet down.

The shopkeeper distracted Azusa by asking if she had an order, her head shake turning to see the lightly crying girl in front of her.

"Give me back my Ryo-chan!" Azusa reached under her overcoat to start getting Charlotte's clothes together when she realised…

"Weren't you the girl who took on the Black Rose?" Azusa’s hand paused at the edge of the plastic bag of clothes as she began to analyse the girl in front of her.

"Yes, so? What's that got to do with Ryo-chan?" The girl tried plucking Charlotte from her arms, but Azusa turned the piglet away.

"Is it true you only trained for a week?" Azusa asked, her eyes flashing with interest.

Then that utter shit Mikado showed up, playing up his 'older brother' act to pluck Charlotte away to try and kiss the girl.

Azusa grinned and played up her 'young sister' act, her hand squeezing at Mikado's shoulder painfully after his latest obsession slugged him in the jaw. "Well, you have a spark to you. How about a friendly match, for my little Charlotte's name? I know she's yours, but 'Ryo-chan' is so childish."

The girl held her fists up, but Azusa flourished her cloak and held her ice skates up, clarifying it to be a figure skating martial arts match.

That's when a girl stood up from the table and stole Charlotte and the plastic bag of clothes, wandering off with her bowl of leftover ramen to the bathroom.

As her opponent took it in stride and agreed to the match, Charlotte wandering back over in human form. "Akane and I accept your challenge."

Mikado shoved his foot in it as he boasted that he'd see them broken beneath his boots, before being chased out by the shopkeeper demanding he order or leave.

Azusa nodded in acknowledgement. "Very well. One week from now. Let's see if you're as much a prodigy with figure skating as you are with gymnastics." She then went to the counter to place an order, before turning her head over her shoulder. "And you should probably attempt to finish teaching your partner how to skate, Akane."

Charlotte blushed heavily as Azusa turned back to focus on her order.

  


* * *

  


“Another challenge, huh?” Nabiki said that evening. Ranma nodded, idly playing with their fianceé’s hair as the two bathed together.

“Yeah… oh, is Kotone needing goggles if we want her to join us in here sometime?” Nabiki shrugged, the water moving around the teens’ swimsuits in ripples. “Well, anyway… this Azusa girl mentioned Akane being a gymnastics prodigy, so maybe you could find out if she was at the match?”

“Hmm, maybe… What was the guy’s name?” Nabiki said, eyes on the steam lazily brushing around the bathroom’s ceiling.

“I think Yuka said they were from Kolkhoz High? Mikado something or other. Azusa was a bigger personality.” Ranma said apologetically. “Anyway, Akane’s taking Ryo-c… shit, sorry, Ryoga to the rink tomorrow.”

Nabiki nodded, lazily swapping positions to play around with Ranma’s currently black hair. Their head lay back against Nabiki’s stomach as she waited for Ranma to continue their thought.

“Um… would you and Kotone be willing to help me learn?” Nabiki looked down at Ranma’s face, their adorable blush making her heart melt.

“Of course, Black-chan.” She brushes their hair back and enjoyed the feeling of spending time with her fiancé in birth form, away from all the pressures of their disguise.

  


* * *

  


Ryoga unsteadily wandered along the ice, tentatively stepping on his rented bladed boots. Akane was hovering nearby, in case he fell, but was also trying to show him how she kept her balance. Nabiki and Kotone were holding onto one of Ranma’s hands each as they squatted on their haunches.

Azusa skated by and slowly skated backwards near Akane. “You’re doing well with teaching Charlotte there.”

“That’s not my name, Azusa.” Ryoga said with a frown. “I’m Ryoga Hibiki, just transferred to Furinkan High.”

“Ah, but is the bet not over what you’ll be called, my dear pig-person?” Azusa said in a teasingly lilting voice, making Ryoga grind his teeth.

“We all know that’s a pretense.” He grunted out. She smiled and nodded at that. “I won’t interfere with your training, would you like me to assist your other friend with learning to skate?”

Akane glanced over Ryoga’s shoulders at Ranma, then winced at whatever she saw. “I don’t know if she’d let you, she’s with her girlfriend and fianceé right now…”

Azusa shrugged and skated away to talk with the trio. Ryoga wasn’t quite sure what happened as he was focusing on matching Akane’s movements, but he next heard Ranma yelling out.

Ryoga spun in place and fell onto Akane, bruising his side as he watched helplessly to see Ranma flailing their arms and freewheeling backwards.

And then Mikado scooped them up…

  


* * *

  


“Mikado!” Azusa yelled as she clotheslined her erstwhile partner. “Don’t pick up girls when I’m teaching them to skate!”

He glared at her, their mutual hatred igniting the air with a brief spark. “Don’t teach newbies when we have time to practice.”

She growled. “Unlike your stupid bet, you aren’t actually my brother. We don’t need to do the hundred foe assault today.”

Mikado dropped the girl who Azusa had only been introduced to, grabbing at the professional skater’s arms. “Nonetheless, we practice anyway.”

Azusa glared at him, but was grateful to see the two girls whose hands she had just shaken - Kotone in the glasses and Nabiki the official fianceé - skate up to take Ranma out of the danger zone. “Mikado, we’re going to have a Talk at lunch tomorrow.” She prepared herself for their practice.

  


* * *

  


Ranma was crouched on shaky legs, hands clasping both of her partners’ hands as he focuses hard on watching the duo spinning on the ice, Azusa being wielded as a sharp weapon with gashes appearing in the uniforms of the hundred hockey players who had slid silently into the ring, courtesy of her sharpened ice skates.

Mikado was fast and had pretty good upper body strength, to be spinning Azusa around so quickly as if she weighed nothing. Ranma’s legs quavered under them as she heard the lothario confidently count out how many foes his partner was taking out, saying “Finito!” at the end of the hundred.

“Now can I go back to teaching that girl?” Azusa asked.

“Why should you teach when I can?” Mikado said, sleaze dripping off every syllable. Ranma felt the back of their neck perk up as his red pigtail tweaked in panic under the blonde wig, as Mikado skated around the back of the trio.

Arms grabbed Ranma around the stomach and picked him up. The tall boy was looming over them… “I’d rather get taught by Azusa and my girlfriends, thanks!”

He gracelessly took the rejection as he loomed even closer, pulling Ranma’s light body closer to his torso. “You can thank me for the earlier rescue, at least.”

Ranma felt the room spinning as he tipped her over - and then he was hungrily kissing their lips suddenly. The world broke around him, around them, around her.

Tears welled up as Ranma, unsure of the reality of the body or soul that held residence inside the cursed body, started skating away from the bastard. Ranma never cried, but yet the tears gushed out of the blonde’s face as the instinct screaming ‘get away’ and ‘demon’ and ‘cat’ flagged Mikado as The Enemy.

The thoughts flying through ___ mind were just ‘How dare he!’ on loop. Ranma lost it, lost track, ran straight past Azusa and frantically pulled ___ skates off, running to ___ locker in the girls’ side of the building. Skates in locker, strip down, run crying into girls’ bath, run out with eyes closed around shocked gasps, pull on clothes but not bra not the bra ___ didn’t deserve the bra right now. The skates were tight on ___ feet but it didn’t matter because it was time to make him HURT.

  


* * *

  


Nabiki felt the air around her like it was melting as she, Azusa and Kotone watched Ranma stomp onto the rink, clad in a masculine silk shirt and pants, their wig nowhere to be seen, declaring that “Sanzenin! You die for the indignity you gave me!”

“Sorry? Who are you..?” Mikado tried to hedge against the intensely angry teen.

Nabiki grasped Kotone’s hand tightly as Ranma punched straight into the ice at their feet. “For the first time in my life, I’m really mad!” A crack travelled from their fist towards Mikado.

“I still don’t know who you are, but for the crime of damaging a rink, you must die!” Mikado said, skating idly in a loose stance.

Ranma used their fist to push off the ground, springing high into the air. “Today you die, enemy of women!” He skated out of their way, Ranma’s body crashing hard into the ice head-first.

“Oh my gods…” Nabiki murmured, as Azusa began whispering questions about just who this version of Ranma was. “They’re going to kill themself if they keep attacking like a beserker…”

Kotone winced. “That’s, ah… someone who was hurt. Is all I can say.”

Ranma slashed a flat hand at Mikado’s chest, overbalanced and smashed their bleeding face into the ice, momentum sending them into the remnants of the beaten down hockey players and the wall behind the small horde.

When Ranma stood to their shaking feet and Mikado’s sweater flopped open revealing it had been cut, the taller and sleazier boy started boasting about using a hidden skill on ‘an ameteur.’

Mikado started spinning in place, limbs flying every which way. One of the hockey players behind Nabiki called it the “Unbeatable dance of death!”. And Ranma was dashing into the whirling dervish fist-first.

Ranma’s body was battered and bouncing around Sanzenin’s attack, and Nabiki turned to watch Ryoga and Akane struggling to their feet, Akane’s eyes entirely focused on the battle.

Mikado punched Ranma out of the dervish and held his pose. Nabiki turned from the injured and crumpled form of her fiancé and saw Akane gesturing for her and Kotone to approach Ranma.

Nabiki followed her sister’s lead, moving over to Ranma and gently kneeling down to examine them. “Ranma? Are you okay?” Kotone rubbed at their back.

Ranma jumped into the air and spun in place, balance still eluding them. But even being able to move at all was enough to impress the various hockey fan observers.

Azusa skated up behind Kotone and whispered “Ranma? The girl from before?” Nabiki was frustrated that she’d been overheard, but nodded to confirm.

“A draw.” One of the hockey players said, confidently, only for Akane to correct them loudly. “Mikado lost.”

Azusa nodded, a small smile on her face. Nabiki glanced at her, then at the standing-yet-unconscious skating partner, wondering what exactly was going on between them.

The skater turned to Ranma and between her and their two partners, got them back on their feet. “Do you want to work on the lesson while he’s out of commission?”

Ranma nodded, mostly exhausted. Akane clucked her tongue at them, but went over to continue teaching Ryoga as Azusa made good on her offer.

  


* * *

  


“Five hundred and eighteen, Ranma!” Akane’s voice was harsh at dinner that night. Ryoga was resting his legs under the kotatsu, feet atop Akane’s. Nabiki was lying mostly under the table with her head on Ranma’s lap. “Even you know that’s excessive!”

“You saw what he did!” They answered back, bandaid on their face per Kasumi’s ministrations. “He took advantage of me!”

Nabiki clutched at Ranma’s hands, feeling them trembling with anger. Akane sighed and nodded in acknowledgement. “I mean, yes, but I held him back with a single punch.”

“He didn’t actually kiss you, though.” Ryoga pointed out quietly. “Ranma wasn’t so lucky.”

“He caught me off guard, the bastard.” Tears started to well in Ranma’s face again, and Ryoga turned away to give them privacy. “And I wanted to figure out a good way to have my first kiss be… I dunno. Romantic.”

Nabiki crawled out from under the kotatsu to give Ranma a tight hug. Ryoga scratched at the back of his neck. “I mean, first kiss and all but… couldn’t you have taken him out before he did it?”

Ranma glared at Ryoga intently until he felt compelled to glance at their face. Ryoga blanched at the look he received, then bowed in apology. “No, you’re right, it’d probably be hard to expect…”

Akane kicked Ryoga’s feet off of her. “Oh, what would you know? How often do you get picked up by someone you don’t want to give the time of day?” She stomped out of the room.

Ranma and Nabiki seemed to be getting a bit too into their cuddling session, and Kasumi had just gotten up from the table to give them privacy, so Ryoga decided to quickly tag along behind Kasumi. “Can you show me to where Akane went, please?” The twisting labyrinth of Ryoga’s life threatened to overtake him any time he was alone.

Kasumi was kind enough to lead Ryoga to the dojo, where Akane was brooding, before leaving on her own.

Ryoga slowly walked up beside Akane, squatting down next to her. “Er, I…” He didn’t quite know what to say.

“You know my nightmares, right?” He nodded - in piggy form he heard her crying out some nights. “One of the lower points of what those bastards Kuno riled up just happened to my friend, and I stood there and watched.”

“Well, you didn’t expect it, and I had fallen on you…” Ryoga tried to give Akane the benefit of the doubt.

“Of course I expected it! I always expect it!” She turned a tearful face on Ryoga. “Don’t you get it? I can’t think of Ranma as anything but a boy, and no boy is safe. I can’t think of you without… I have to think of you as a pig. Or else I start imagining you sweeping me off my feet…”

Ryoga blinked at that. “Um… but you’ve been training? How could I get you off-balance?”

Akane dashed her hand out at Ryoga’s chest as her left arm swept his legs out from under him, making him land in her lap. Her face loomed over him as she whispered. “Just like that.”

Their eyes met as a blush rose up Akane’s face, and Ryoga scrambled away from her lap. “You made your point!”

Akane blurted out. “It’s not like I wanted to kiss you!”

Ryoga felt his anger rise. “Well! I mean! Who would want to kiss you, anyway!?”

“Like you have the balls! Piggy!”

“Keep calling me names and I might!”

“Go the fuck ahead, Charlotte!”

The two heated teens glared at each other, then Ryoga blushed and glanced at Akane’s lips, then her eyes. “I… I can’t while your eyes are open.”

She glared petulantly at her part-time pet before pointedly closing her eyes.

Ryoga blushed heavily as he moved close in to her face, the breath from her nose on his lips making him feel stressed out.

Akane suddenly spoke. “What’s taking you so long, Ryo-chan? You get lost on the way?”

Ryoga bit his lip then quickly darted his face in and gave Akane a peck on the lips. Her eyes darted open in shock.

Ryoga fell back from her, shocked at his own actions. Akane looked down at her hands, gently raising one to her lips, before nodding to herself. “Good.” She stood up and held a hand out to Ryoga. “At least I’m not completely poisoned on boys, then.”

Ryoga took her hand and followed her to dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry I took so long to put this chapter up, had a fair amount of badbrains the last little while.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this take on Azusa!


	15. Mikado, chill out

****

Kasumi made sure to extract a promise from Genma to follow her to the market the following day by claiming that she’d fallen low on the spices that his other form could handle. She was truly grateful to the everyone-but-her family doctor for providing curse-safe foods for both of the house’s guests.

She had admittedly used a bit too much of the spices on their human portions last week, but she assumed her little white lie wouldn’t be opposed by the larger man from what she’d heard from Ranma about their time on the road.

Dinner that night was a quiet affair, the heads of each family seated at opposite ends of the table. Genma was good and avoided any impulse to pick at Ranma or Ryoga’s plates, though Kasumi had noticed his chopsticks twitch a couple of times. She offered the man who had been sharing her father’s bed a smile every time he restrained himself, and made sure to prepare a fondue for the table as thanks.

Ryoga seemed to prefer the cheese dip to the chocolate, and the opposite for Genma, which she noted for future dessert and bento options. The two teens who had been kissed headed to the furo to prepare for bed, as the sisters prepared their own pyjamas for a bath afterwards.

Genma offered to clean up the fondue, and Kasumi reminded him to lower the temperature rather than turn it off if he planned on using it again later that night - he nodded, being mildly caught out for his late night snack plans. She had figured her father’s board game would have the two late into the night, and gathered up some extra strawberries for the two.

Once a pig and red-haired they padded to Nabiki and Akane’s rooms on light footsteps, the sisters went to the bath and slipped in, enjoying the heat. Kasumi grinned at both girls. “So, you enjoyed your time in the dojo, Akane?”

Her littlest sister’s face glowed nice and red, before she shrugged and glanced at the high window. “Ryoga understands why I was so upset, at least.” Nabiki chuckled at that, before catching Kasumi’s eye.

“So how come that was Ranma’s first kiss, hm?” She asked placidly.

“We’re taking things slow. Plus the last girl who kissed him literally tried to kill him, so, you know.” She sighs. “I really hate that Sanzenin bastard.” A duo of nods. “Maybe I should find out what’s going on with Azusa and him, she really didn’t seem to like him either.”

Kasumi sighed and let herself soak deeper into the water. “Well, hopefully Father will calm down with more of those board games with Mr Saotome.”

“That’s what they do all day?” Akane asked mildly.

“Mm, I’m surprised they haven’t asked me to spend some time away from the house yet.” She said matter-of-factly.

Nabiki snorted as she slipped into the water, laughing underwater for a bit before pulling her head out with a gasp, before laughing even harder at the disgusted look on Akane’s face.

“Dad wouldn’t do that!” Akane grumbled.

“Yes, he has been slow to date since Mother passed…” Kasumi said with a sigh. “I had hoped a former partner would bring him out of his shell.”

Nabiki snorted and coughed a little. “Kas, I think Akane always thought Daddy meant a training partner.”

“Oh! I always thought it was both. Brothers in blood, that sort of thing.” Kasumi said as she finished her bath, giving Akane a gentle pat on the head as she realigned her thought process.

“Nabiki, I do hope dear Ranma-san will feel comfortable enough soon to take down those sheets from your room? I’m running rather low on pegs.” Nabiki answered with a shrug.

“Like I said sis, don’t wanna push them.”

  


* * *

  


The next day Kasumi was grateful to see that the fondue supplies had been rinsed off, and wondered if she should tease Genma about sharing her father’s bed in cursed form as well when they were out that day.

She decided to go for a movie theme for the teen’s lunches that day, giving Nabiki the antagonist Elle from the first Urusei Yatsura movie from the previous year, with the rice in the background meant to be her million frozen partners. A melting heart was in the bottom corner, linking it to one she put in Ranma’s meal matching with the upcoming Ultraman movie in a fighting pose.

Akane got a picture of Nausicaä on a glider for her meal, and Ryoga got a vengeful pearl diving woman from the movie Ningyo Densetsu from his quest for revenge. She made sure to wrap up Ryoga’s in one of his bandanas, Akane’s in a light blue, Nabiki’s in a light red, and Ranma’s in a neutral white.

Once the younger children left for school, Ryoga once again on a short leash of his bandanas tied to Akane’s wrist, Kasumi asked Genma to come with her to the market. The two walked slowly to the small street she did her shopping at, Kasumi wondering how to bring up what she had in mind.

Genma glanced her way at one point. “That Tofu is a real… Well. I’m glad you don’t share his feelings.” He gruffly said, a hand gently patting at her shoulder. She nodded in acknowledgement.

“Mr. Saotome, you obviously care about us even after only a month.” Kasumi sighed as she wondered how to bring up her thoughts. “Why are you so harsh to your child?”

He stared at the clouds as the pair walked. “Ranma is… he’s a-”

“They, Mr Saotome. Ranma prefers ‘they’.”

“Oh. I wish they’d talk to me about that sort of thing… Anyway. They’ve been with me for a long time, and I think I learned the wrong lessons from the demon that trained me, and my own parents. I want the best for them, but I know I’ve hurt them in the past and…” A sigh. “And I failed their mother, as well.”

“How so?” Kasumi asked gently.

“I misunderstood something she had made me promise, and kept trying harder and harder to go along with my initial mistake, should she ever ask me about it…” The part-time panda began collecting purchases for Kasumi, acting as a handy trolley for her this day. “She wanted to be involved in Ranma’s life, and worded it in an odd way. And instead of making my son- child, sorry- the best heir to the Saotome branch while coming back to her to give her more children…”

Kasumi glanced at Genma and reached up to pat the man on the shoulder. “I’m sure she’d understand if you told her.”

“Twelve years she’s been out of Ranma’s life, Kasumi.” He despaired.

“Best not make it thirteen, then.” She pouted. “But, do you intend to make Ryoga a heir as well?”

Genma shook his head.

“Perhaps you had better let him get his aggression out on you for a while, then. He is rather put out by the curse, you understand.”

Genma sighed and looked at the clouds again. “You probably have a point. Very well… Have you managed to contact his parents yet?”

Kasumi shook her head. “No, they must have the same trouble with directions that he does. I left a letter in their mailboxes, thank goodness that Ryoga keeps a list of stops they usually visited in his childhood.”

Genma hummed at that, giving a nod. “I think I might keep an eye on the children at the rink today. Do you have any portable snacks that’d fit both forms?”

Kasumi smiled at his initiative, promising to put together some rice balls with some of the panda spices.

“And then you can actually use the last of it, hm?” Genma gave a wink at that, and the pair laughed as they made it back to the house.

  


* * *

  


Nabiki had spread the word about Akane’s upcoming match in the relaxed attitude of the half-day at school, and walking to the rink after school with her hands draped over Kotone’s shoulders and a happy glance up at her fiancé. “How are you feeling about more lessons today, blonde-chan?”

Ranma peered down from their balance training, giving a shrug before spinning around and starting to casually walk backwards. “I don’t like that she’s working with Sanzenin.”

Kotone gave a shrug as Nabiki interlinked her fingers in front of the seer’s neckline. “Sweetheart, maybe he’s holding something over her.” She said up to Ranma.

“Yeah but maybe Azusa could try and actually tell us about it, Ko-chan.” The martial artist said as they started doing a handstand, the silk pants under their skirt maintaining their dignity as the skirt inverted and hung around their currently-flat chest.

Nabiki was glad to see the wig holding its position, and idly wondered how dye would work with the curse… or other forms of bodily changes. She knew Ranma couldn’t gain recovery time from their time with the sprain. “I could try and ferret it out of her once you feel comfortable enough to just skate with mint-chan?”

Ranma lifted their body up on one hand and gave a thumbs up with their other hand. “Sounds great, Biki-chan!” The route to the ice rink continued with Ranma doing a roundoff, into a backwards shuffle, then pivoting and repeating the move.

Nabiki helped Azusa and Kotone through the training methods, the three working on convincing Ranma to skate from one to another and eventually switching it up to changing the destination mid-travel, sometimes getting Ranma to work on swivelling around and going back to the person they initially came from. After Ranma was feeling confident, Kotone started leading them around the rink as Nabiki and Azusa skated to the exit from the ice.

“Why is there a panda eating rice balls over there?” Azusa said with a blink. “Is that even healthy for it?”

“Oh, we had to do a lot of research - that’s Ranma’s father, he has a curse like Ranma and Ryog-” “Charlotte.” “Right, The Pig Who Cannot Be Named.” Nabiki rolled her eyes, then began walking Azusa over to sit next to Genma. He gave a careful ‘growf’ after chomping down another rice ball, before reaching a claw out to Azusa.

She carefully took it and shook, greeting him as Mr Saotome. Nabiki left the man to keep a parental eye on Ranma as she gained Azusa’s attention again. “So, how come you’re playing second fiddle to Mikado?”

The Kolkhoz schoolgirl sighed and laid her head on her hands. “I can’t say.” She seemed ready to argue the point, but Nabiki accepted that and started talking about the differences between their schools. She seemed like a nice enough girl if a bit heavy into french things, mentioning the adoptive names of other pets she’d helped return to their owners.

Apparently she had convinced her parents to build her a little barn out the back of their property (they were fairly loaded) so she could play nursemaid to several feral animals she’d found around the place. “And they look so cute after a bit of tender loving care!” She enthuses.

Nabiki gave a grin. “Maybe if you want to find them homes I could take some pictures of them in your outfits?” Azusa glanced at her before narrowing her eyes.

“What’s your angle?” Nabiki briefly explained her money woes after Kuno’s raid on Mrs Occhan’s, and said that while she’d gathered a bit of money back from the training ‘candids’ from Kuno and the other obsessives, being able to get some paid commissions would be helpful to the family coffers.

“And being able to treat Red-chan or Black-chan to a few dates out would be nice.” Azusa quirked her head at that. “Oh, right, you only saw their birth form without the wig. When they’ve got boobs, their hair is red.” She gave a nod.

The two continued to chatter for a while before Genma stood, reaching over the edge of the rink and grabbing Mikado by the shoulder. The bruised and battered boy turned to glare, started at the panda, then glanced down to Azusa with a sneer.

“Stealing from the zoo for your little hobby now, ‘imouto’?” He said sarcastically.

“Nope, Panda-kun is a friend of the girl you assaulted yesterday.” She said in a sing-song voice, before shifting to a steely tone. “Maybe you should keep in mind the friends of those you decide to claim in future?”

He laughed it off, even as Genma narrowed his black-rimmed eyes at the boy before plonking him down hard on the ice, his skates embedding inside. Azusa started playing up her concerned little sister act, as Nabiki snuck off to report the ‘vandalism’ to the skate check.

All three gave each other a confident look as Mikado was yelled at.

  


* * *

  


The Kolkhoz class had been preparing for the upcoming skating match, as had Nabiki’s foursome. Bets had been placed, the hints of Ryoga’s and Akane’s teamwork and lessons having been a nightly topic - Kikuko and Ryonami had been on photography duty with the promise of keeping the information shown in the training seperate from Nabiki, Kotone, Ranma and therefore Azusa.

Mild mocking of Ranma for the lack of ice skating (and a counter of ‘how often did you expect me and my dad to go to ice rinks when we were living off the land?’) and Azusa gaining brownie points for helping out such a charity case were the main takeaways from the pre-match work from both schools.

It gave both schools a bit of a shock to see the match advertised as ‘The Charlotte Cup’, as neither team had thought to inform anyone over what the actual stakes are.

  


* * *

  


Ranma gave a grateful Ryoga, who had slowly burnt himself out on his revenge against Genma that week, a lift to the men’s dressing room in their anonymous male guise. Mikado Sanzenin spent the time getting changed shooting daggers at the bored Ranma in the mirror.

“I can’t place what I may have done to earn your ire.” He eventually opened with. Ranma answered with a single finger. Ryoga snorted.

“It’s something involving your routine sexual assaults, probably.” The part-time pig said as he tugged up a pair of flashy dress pants.

“Mm, your partner, the one with the pig… what was her name again? Tendo?” Sanzenin pressed.

Ranma spoke up. “You won’t be even talking to any Tendos, you sex-obsessed freak.”

He spun on one foot. “So, I did something to a Tendo, hm? How about this, Hibiki. At some time during today’s match, I will indeed steal a kiss from miss Tendo’s lips!”

Two pairs of eyes heavily glowered at him after that proclamation. Ranma hissed out. “Don’t you have anything beyond yourself on your mind?”

“Pfeh. What else is there?”

  


* * *

  


Azusa and Akane’s changing room was far more magnanimous. “Did your training of Ranma go well?” The Tendo girl asked as she tugged on her leotard.

“Well, I doubt they’d be able to take on Mikado without going berserker again…” Azusa hedged.

“Ah, you’d be surprised, he’s been teaching me how to expand my own martial arts skills.”

Azusa gave a shrug at that. “Doesn’t mean that you don’t have your own skills.”

Akane returned with a small laugh. “Ask Nabiki for the logs of my first few months at Furinkan if you take that photography job.”

  


* * *

  


Ranma delivered Ryoga to the changing room, sneaking inside to get dressed back in their uniform and wig. Azusa gave a nod as he adjusted her braid, taking a moment to help tighten the bands at the base of their pants.

"Aren't you going to be late?" Ranma asked with a mild tone.

"Oh probably." Azusa giggled. "Anything that annoys Mikado is good for me!"

Speaking of the devil, a fist knocked harshly at the women's dressing room. "Aren't you done yet, you ditz!?"

Azusa’s face fell before she said in an overly saccharine voice. "Zuzu-chan is just helping Ranran be ready for her girlfriends, Mikey!"

"Ah, a new girl?" The door opened to the thankfully dressed pair. Mikado frowned slightly on seeing Ranma. "Ah, another woman stunned into lesbianism due to hearing I can't settle down."

Ranma ignored Mikado, thanking Azusa and asking her to join the Furinkan group after she lost.

"Hah, as if!" She waved Ranma out of the dressing room, and they wandered into the stands, parking his butt on Kotone’s lap and swinging her legs over Biki-chan's lap. He looped their arms around Ko-chan's shoulders and watched the rink as spotlights began to focus on the ice.

They shot Nabiki a grin when her arm joined the hug, and Kotone lifted the three clasped hands to give it a small kiss.

Ryoga and Akane made their way onto the ice with an introduction over the loudspeaker - “The Vibrant Flowers of Furinkan High!” - and the spotlights made their yellow wheat field backgrounds covered in silhouettes of thin branches covered in black flowers. Akane’s outfit had a skirt patterned with ducklings worn over her leotard, and Ryoga had flourishes of a dark snake wrapping around his long sleeves.

The two moved in unison as they skated around in a flourish, before the lights dimmed on them and focused on “the Golden Pair of Kolkhoz High!” - Azusa in a pink leotard covered in white frills matching the ribbons she wore in her hair, and Mikado in pale blue with a similar set of white markings.

  


* * *

  


Akane carefully maneuvered along the ice, subtly directing Ryoga and taking the lead while making it seem like he was in charge. She held no illusions that her opponent was doing the same on the other side of the rink. Once the lights came on fully the two teams faced each other and the referee explained the fight was until knockout.

Akane nodded at Ryoga as they began approaching their foes, the pair splitting up to approach the Kolkhoz students from both sides at once. Azusa kept her eyes warily on Akane, spinning to face her as much as she could while her hands were held in the grip of her partner. Ryoga slid past Mikado with an opening punch to his side, but the more experienced skater simply weaved out of the way of the swing.

Ryoga spun lightly as he regained his balance, and Akane came up behind him and climbed up to sit at his shoulder. A quick whisper of “I’ll distract, you go for the hit.” was enough for her to grasp onto Ryoga’s upper arms, shifting herself at the last moment as Ryoga approached the spinning dervish that was Mikado holding Azusa by the arms and using her feet as a weapon.

Akane quickly moved her knees to Ryoga’s shoulder and launched herself into the air, pushing Ryoga down under the scything ice skates just in time for him to duck and take a solid punch to the side of one of Mikado’s knees as he glided past. Akane pinwheeled her arms in midair lightly as she saw Ryoga go slightly off track, but thankfully the midair training Ranma had been slowly teaching her was enough for her to realign herself so she landed on her feet next to her Ryo-chan, rather than knees first onto his back like she had initially planned.

Mikado stumbled as Akane slowly spun Ryoga around herself to bleed off their momentum, the pair slowing to a complete stop as they bumped up their backs against the fence. Mikado was down on his good leg, which the announcer was milking for all it was worth. Azusa was also taking her chance, a mocking cry of “Mikey! Does him hurt here?” echoing through the room as she poked, prodded and slapped at his injured knee.

“I said yes already, you horrible beast!” Mikado’s voice rang out, causing a small susurration of distaste from his fans in the stands. He fought his way to his feet and glared daggers at Ryoga. “It’s rare I’m driven to my knees.”

“It’s rare I let sexist trash get away with their intentions.” Ryoga spat back. “You aren’t going to be kissing my new girlfriend anytime soon!”

Akane flushed as Ryoga revealed their new status in front of the school, several boys from Furinkan hooting and booing. Azusa grimaced apologetically in Akane’s direction from across the ice as Mikado snapped his fingers and declared the Golden Pair as ‘the anti-matchmakers’. She still climbed into a handstand on his shoulders, however, and as the pairs skated at each other still launched herself at Ryoga.

Akane spun around to watch her true opponent as she gave Ryoga a flirtatious hug, skating over to tug at Azusa’s hair - their truce off the ice meant nothing if she was going to steal her new boyfriend!

“You’re wide open~” Azusa said teasingly as Ryoga tried to explain, darting between his legs and pulling him down to the ground. Akane naturally reached out to grab at his wrists before he fell, and then the horrible couple cleaver, as cheerfully announced over the loudspeaker, began to take form.

Akane saw Mikado swing Azusa around by the legs, tugging both Ryoga and in turn herself into the air. She was amazed by his body strength, even as she and Ryoga began spinning around the middle of the golden pair’s centrifuge.

The air around them buffeted at their sides at high speeds, as the announcer’s voice continued to explain the concept of the Goodbye Whirl - betray your partner early, or increase the pain they feel when they inevitably let go. Ryoga’s hands tightened at Akane’s wrists on hearing that, even as the pair met each others’ eyes. Ryoga mouthed the word ‘go?’ and Akane shook her head, before he smirked and spoke up a little louder, pulling her in for a quick kiss. “I said, go up my body and show Azusa what for!”

Akane gasped at the plan before her eyes turned harsh, tugging her way up Ryoga’s limbs as his strong hands supported her sides. She clambered her way towards Azusa’s centre point of the spiral, eyes on the back of her opponent’s head as Azusa shook her head slightly. “I’ve got to let go!” Azusa yelled out in warning, even as Akane grabbed hold of the other girl’s upper arms and held on for dear life.

Azusa lost her grip on Ryoga and he spiralled away from the remaining three spinning skaters, smashing back-first into a retaining wall. The announcer gave a startled laugh. “I don’t think we’ve seen the goodbye whirl go that way before!” even as Akane and Azusa climbed down Mikado’s slowing body, both giving him a knee to the face as they went.

Akane skated over to Ryoga as he peeled his way out of the crater, though as she approached it seemed to be more that gravity was doing the job there. She slid on her knees next to him, grabbing him around the stomach and feeling for a pulse on the side of his neck.

Her fingers felt only cold and she began to sob, even as Azusa slowly skated up behind her. She kissed at Ryoga’s chin and her tears fell on his cold body.

Then, very quickly, two things happened. Ryoga transformed, leaving his clothes on the ground and Akane holding the chin of his piglet form, and a sheet dropped down from above.

  


* * *

  


Ranma had extracted themself from his partners as the announcer began crooning about Ryoga sustaining severe injuries, pulling her father’s picnic blanket off his lap and splashing the hot tea in front of him over the ground. After another moment Ranma reached out to grab the kettle, running over to perch on the same segment of the wall that had been damaged by a flying pig.

The two cursed people had a small explosion of the kettle from the change in temperature as it landed on Ryoga’s pants, the picnic blanket covering both their changes back in the small burst of steam. Ranma quickly adjusted his dress and her pants as they were used to now, then glanced over at Ryoga who had covered himself with - the remnants of a tattered pair of pants.

“Shit…” Ranma says, before scrambling out from under the blanket with a heavy blush on his face. “I blew up my sister in law’s boyfriends’ pants!” She said as she ran off the ice, panicked.

  


* * *

  


Ryoga wrapped the picnic basket around his waist as a skirt, thankful that he at least had his underwear survive the quick change. A few wolf whistles from the stands reminded him to also pull on his shirt, even as he grimaced at the hot splash of water on its back.

The announcer called out into the microphone that there was a fashion emergency, and very quickly the Kolkhoz fashion club appeared on the ice, a set of girls running past the embarrassed Ranma with a pair of changing booths whose wheels skidded along the ice.

The girls tromped their cleats quickly as they bundled up Ryoga and all the shards of his clothes into one changing booth, as two quickly conferred at high speed with Akane before wheeling the second booth to join the first.

Ryoga was too stunned to be embarrassed as a yellow choker was wrapped around his neck, his now-torn bandana replaced with a fancy headband trimmed in gold, and a black leotard was held up against him as the girls debated quickly with each other. He gave an ambivalent shrug as they turned to face the shelf of clothes, pulling the leotard on over his underwear then glancing down at himself. “Ah, frills?”

Then glanced at each other then nodded, pulling scissors out and cutting half of the frills away before stitching a long pair of pant legs to each remaining part, leaving yellow semi transparent gaps of fabric between Ryoga’s new leotard and his pants. Sleeves of the same material soon enveloped the stunned boy’s arms and were also stitched to the leotard, before the girls stood back and glanced over the new look. While it had lost the wheat and snake themes, it was at least still black and yellow. One of the fashionista girls grabbed a large pair of yellow flowers and held them up to Ryoga’s fringe, glancing at him to get approval. He nodded lightly and they quickly pinned it into his hair before giving him a pat on the back and wheeling both changing booths back out of the rink.

“There you have it boys and girls, Kolkhoz fashion club - showing why they’re number one at preventing wardrobe malfunctions in all of Nerima!” The announcer crooned as Ryoga stumbled out into Akane’s waiting hands, the skates from before thrust into his chest. He pulled them on quickly and turned to face their opponents, Azusa having held Mikado back with a variety of fake sounding excuses the whole time.

  


* * *

  


Azusa playfully stomped her foot in a tantrum to force Mikado to glance down - he had such an obsession over the sanctity of the rink, it was easy to manipulate him by pulling her motions at the last moment. While the Casanova was distracted she glanced over at Akane, who gave a small thumbs up.

"Mikey! Stop playing around, we're in the middle of a match!" Azusa exulted in the death glare her enforced partner shot her way, doing a small spin on the ice and pointing a hand at Ryoga.

"Now we see the true nature of the name we're fighting over! Charlotte is none other than the third girl on the ice!" Ryoga's ears turned red as he held up his fists.

Akane slid in front of Ryoga and glared at Azusa, spreading her arms defensively. "That's not right! She's my Ryo-chan, you don't get to pick a name for her without asking!"

The announcer was having a field day, asking if anyone else saw the piglet the cup was named after on the ice earlier. A susurration of the various factions in the stands - Mikado fans, Azusa fans, neutral Kolkhoz students, the scattering of Furinkan boys with arms in casts, those who had experience with Ranma’s father (who, Azusa noted, was a panda again) trying to explain magic - the voices were debating Ryoga's true species and Azusa was slowly regretting letting her small tease about the boy on the ice reveal the magic involved.

She began to skate over to apologize to the flustered Ryoga, who came to meet her with fists flying. The announcer spoke over Azusa’s quiet apology as she dodged the punch to give Ryoga a hug, distracting her flustered opponent.

"What did he mean, 'trademark kiss attack?'" Ryoga hissed in anger as both opponents turned to watch where Mikado was looming over Akane, her hand on his chest holding his disgusting face at bay. Azusa nodded at Ryoga and they both started skating in Mikado's direction to give him a piece of their mind.

That's when Akane hooked her foot against his thigh and kicked hard, slicing him with the blade on her foot. Blood dripped onto the ice as she turned the momentum into a throw, flinging the pervert away from her.

Azusa laughed childishly to cover her relief as she skated forward to hug Akane. "Good job!" The flustered Furinkan warrior tried to push her congratulations away as Ryoga skated up to confront them.

"Hey! She's my girlfriend, thank you!" Azusa backed off, an apology on her lips, but she slipped on Mikado's blood and slid between Akane's legs, grabbing them and tripping her by accident.

Ryoga was quick to grab Akane’s wrists and stop her from falling, and before they could untangle themselves Mikado heaved Azusa into the air as the announcer gleefully announced the second appearance of the goodbye whirl.

  


* * *

  


Akane eyed Ryoga as the spin began, holding his wrists extra tight. "You aren't going flying again!" Azusa's arms at her legs were, mercifully, holding on tight. Ryoga glanced past Akane at the centre of the column of students, and she glanced down her front - a small gulp of vertigo as she glanced at the spinning, small smear of blood far below her.

Azusa was holding tight onto Akane's ankles, but her legs were kicking at Mikado's arms. "Let go of me you creep! Stop the whirl, damn it!" The upside-down grimace on the playboy's face showed his opinion on that, before Akane glanced up at Ryoga’s face.

"How can we get him to let go?" She asked, even as she pulled Ryoga closer to herself against the centrifugal force.

Ryoga swung his legs up over Akane, the whirling attack resulting with one teen sitting on his girlfriend's back, arms still tightly clasped even as she began to bend her hips forward.

The wobbly momentum of their increased drag started to slow Mikado down, and as Akane faced downward and Ryoga pushed off her back with a knee she had a front row seat to see Azusa manage to gouge one loose skate into the top of Mikado's head.

Ryoga swung down feet-first with Akane's weight behind him, his bladed feet travelling towards the playboy's face. "Let her go!"

And Mikado did.

Azusa helicoptered up into the air as Ryoga's legs darted between hers, the now-airborne boy quickly wrapping his legs around his opponents'. Akane glanced down at her boyfriend and rival, before swinging herself to take the brunt of the fenc-

  


* * *

  


Azusa held tightly to Akane's legs, and wrapped feet around Ryoga’s legs as her back bounced off the ice, before all three teens smashed into the fence, Akane having taken the brunt of it. While the announcer crowed about the minor detail of Akane and Ryoga never letting go of each other's hands, Azusa painfully rolled out of the rubble and unsteadily got to her feet. She helped the Furinkan couple to their feet, Akane shaking in pain and supported by Ryoga's shoulder.

"I am sick to death of him." Azusa hissed out as she spat on the ice, stomping her foot down in anger and cracking the ice.

Mikado’s ears perked up at the sound and he began skating at Azusa with anger in his eyes. "Watch me destroy your precious toy the moment we're off the ice, harridan!" Azusa just grimaced and braced herself.

Her foot rooted in place by her blade, she punched upwards as Mikado got into range. And it seemed she wasn't the only one to connect with his jaw.

"AN EXPLOSIVE TRIPLE UPPERCUT!" The announcer said in disbelief, as Mikado bounced back along the rink, unmoving. Azusa moved to the injured Akane’s other side and began helping her foes off the ice as the crowd broke out into whispers over Kolkhoz losing a match to internal strife.


End file.
